The letter
by HeavyDirtySoulIsHoldingOnToYou
Summary: What if Harry wasn't an idiot and didn't try to open the letter from Hogwarts in front of his relatives.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer ~ I DON'T OWN ANYTHING FROM HARRY POTTER. ARE YOU HAPPY NOW?!**

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Harry stood in the kitchen at the Dursley's once again making breakfast for everyone while Aunt Petunia was drinking a cup of tea which Harry had made and Uncle Vernon was sitting reading the news paper. But this time he was looking forward to dishing it up because he had been told that he could have a small plate of the left-overs because he had gotten all of his chores done the day before. Harry's stomach growled at the smell that was wafting up from the bacon and sausages that he was currently cooking and the beans that were sitting in a pan waiting to be dished up. He heard the thundering noise that indicated Dudley running down the stairs as he began to plate up the food, he put four pieces of bacon, three sausages, two slices of toast that was smothered with butter and a serving of baked beans on Uncle Vernon's plate and carried it over before repeating the same for Dudley's plate. For Aunt Petunia he put a single slice of toast with a thin layer of orange marmalade, one slice of bacon and two sausages before carrying it over to her. Harry's plate had one sausage that was slightly burned and a plain slice of toast which he ate as soon as he sat down at the table before Dudley could try and steal it off his plate.

As soon as he heard the letter box Harry knew what was going to happen. "Go get the post Dudley." Uncle Vernon ordered while his head was still in the news paper.

"Make Harry get it." Dudley whined making himself sound like a toddler.

"Go get the post boy." Uncle Vernon ordered again.

"Make Dudley get it." Harry said before he was able to stop himself.

But he was lucky that Uncle Vernon was still absorbed in the news as all he said was, "Hit him with your Smelting stick Dudley." as Harry was getting up from him chair and he managed to avoid the stick that Dudley had aimed at his legs as he left the room to walk towards the front door to collect the letters.

He looked through the letters getting ready to throw junk mail out as he walked towards the Dinning room however he paused just before entering when he saw a letter addressed to him. ' **Mr H. Potter, Cupboard Under The Stairs, 4 Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey.'** The letter proclaimed in emerald green ink which was written in spidery writing **.** When he turned the letter over he saw a crest stamped on the back of the envelope to seal it with watch like Harry had learned about in history in school.

"What are you doing boy?" Hearing Uncle Vernon's voice dragged him back to the present and he opened the cupboard door and placed the letter under his pillow before closing the door quietly and carrying the rest of the letter into the Dinning room and handing them to Uncle Vernon. Harry sat back down at the table to wait for everyone to finish eating their breakfast so that he could carry the plates back to the kitchen and clean them. He had to wait for another five minutes before everyone was finished and as soon as they were Harry was up out of his sit and picking up all the plates to carry them to the kitchen. He turned the tap on for warm water and waited for the sink to fill up half way before pouring some liquid dish soap into the water and then putting the dishes in.

All Harry could think about when washing the dishes was the letter was waiting for him in his cupboard. When he was finished washing the dishes and putting them away he started the rest of his chores straight away because the faster he got them all done the faster he gets put in the cupboard for the night.

By the time he had finished his chores it was nine o'clock at night and he couldn't wait until he got his hands on his letter again. As soon as he heard the cupboard door being locked and Aunt Petunia's footsteps heading towards the living room he picked up the letter from under his pillow and ripped it open and pulled out the first piece of strange paper his hand touched.

' **Hogwarts School of**

 **Witchcraft and Wizardry**

 **Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore**

 **(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand**

 **Sorcerer, Chief Warlock,**

 **Supreme Mugwump, International**

 **Confederation of Wizard)'**

Harry stopped and stared at the beginning of the letter before continuing to read.

 **'Dear Mr Potter,**

 **We are please to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclose a list of all necessary book and equipment.**

 **Term begins on the 1st of September. We await your owl by no later than the 31st July.**

 **Yours sincerely,**

 **Minerva McGonagall**

 **Deputy Headmistress.'**

Harry then picked up the second piece of the strange paper that he hadn't noticed until now and pulled it out.

 **'First Year students will require:**

 **1\. Three sets of plain work robes (black).**

 **2\. One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear.**

 **3\. One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar).**

 **4\. One winter cloak (black, with silver fastenings).**

 **Please not that all pupil's clothes should carry name tags.'**

Harry placed everything back in the envelope and placed it back underneath his pillow before laying down. ' _Is this even real? It seems to in depth to be a prank and well to thought out to be done by Dudley.'_ Harry thought to himself as he stared up at the stairs above him before sighing. ' _I'll write a reply and try to find an owl. If it's a prank no one will know if I fell for it because I'll make sure Dudley is out of the house before doing anything.'_ Please by his plan Harry fell asleep to the sound of the television and the Dursley's family shouting at it.

When Harry woke the next morning by the sound of Aunt Petunia banging on the door of the cupboard and the sound of the door unlocking. Harry dragged himself out of the bed and got himself dressed for the day. After making his way to the kitchen he made everyone their breakfast without asking for any and waiting for Uncle Vernon left for work and Dudley to leave to go round his friends house to play on their new computer game. Harry then decided that would be the perfect time to write the letter while Aunt Petunia was next door gossiping with the neighbour.

 **'Dear Deputy Headmistress McGonagall,**

 **I wish to confirm my place at your school. I was wondering if there was anyone who could inform me where I could buy my exquipment and books as I have no idea where I would look. Thank you for reading.**

 **Yours sincerly Harry Potter'**

Harry then looked in the draws in the kitchen for an empty envelope and when he found one he placed his letter inside before sealing it shut and writing the address on front of the envelope.

 **'Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.'**

Harry folded the envelope in half and placed it in his pockets and waited for Aunt Petunia to come back and then asked if he could go to the park. He left as soon as she nodded her head and walked away from the house as soon as possible. When he arrived at the park he stood next to the swings and looked around to make sure he was alone before speaking. "I need to send my reply to Hogwarts." Harry proclaimed to the empty park and Harry felt stupid when nothing happened. He sighed to himself and just when he began to walk out of the park he hear a hoot from behind him. There stood an owl staring at him as though it was waiting for something, Harry approached and as soon as he got close enough he could see something attached to the leg of the owl so that it could carry letter. Harry couldn't stop grinning as he attached the letter to its legs and it flew away as soon as the letter was attached.

' _I hope I get a reply soon.'_ Harry thought to himself as he sat down on the swings.

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 **Hi! I hope you enjoyed reading this. Thanks for reading. By the way before anyone says anything the mistakes in Harry's letter were on purpose. Stay alive frens |-/ 3**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer ~ I don't own anything from the Harry Potter universe.**

For the next two days Harry kept expecting a reply to his letter every time he heard the post arriving but it was never there when he checked. After sending the letter off with the owl Harry had sat on the swings in the park for an hour or so because he didn't want Aunt Petunia to get suspicious if he wasn't at the park for long before returning to the Dursley residence. When he arrived home after the park he did all of his chores and even managed to get another meal before going to sleep in his cupboard for the night. On the second day of waiting Harry had just finished serving up the Dursley's dinner, which they were eating in the living room instead of the dinning room because they wanted to watch the television when there was a knock on the door when he was about to eat his own dinner of a slice of bread.

"Who could be knocking on the door at this time?" Uncle Vernon muttered to himself before snapping at Harry, "Well go get the door boy." Harry rushed to open to door while eating his piece of bread as he didn't want Dudley to steal and if Harry knew Dudley at all he would just because it was there.

Harry opened the door and there stood an intimidating man dressed in all black. Most of the man's appearance was black; his shoulder length hair was black and greasy, his eyes were a cold black which were glaring at Harry and the strange outfit, which looked like he was wearing a cloak or maybe they were robes, were also black. The only part of his appearance the wasn't black was his sallow skin which stood out starkly against all the black. The man stood there looking down his rather large hooked nose at Harry who was finally able to drag himself from his daze when a eyebrow was raised at him.

"How can I help you sir?" Harry asked feeling even smaller than his already embarrassingly short height with those cold black eyes, which looked so hard they were identical to obsidian, looking down at him.

"Mr Potter I am here to talk to you about your reply to the Hogwarts acceptance letter." The man drawled and Harry was shocked by how deep the man's voice was.

Harry heard the creak of the couch indicating that somebody was standing up."Who is it boy?" Aunt Petunia asked, then her footsteps were coming towards the two of them and Harry was panicking internally while the man in front of him smirked. As soon as she saw who was at the door Aunt Petunia gasped, "You! What are you doing here?" She shrieked before trying to slam the door shut but the man put his foot in the way and pushed it back open. Harry was confused at why the sight of the man had his Aunt panicking and he heard his Uncle stomping towards the door to see what was going on. Harry watched as his face turned bright red at the sight of the man's unusual outfit.

"Hello Tuney." The man once again drawled while the smirk on his face grew. Harry's confusion grew when he heard the nick-name, ' _How do they know each other?'_ Harry wondered to himself. "As I was telling Mr Potter here, I am here to talk about his reply to the Hogwarts letter." As soon as Aunt Petunia heard the word Hogwarts leave the man's lips her face paled drastically while Uncle Vernon's face started to turn purple.

"He never got any letter." Aunt Petunia hissed out.

"I did." Harry whispered, scared to speak any louder.

"What? When did it come?" Uncle Vernon bellowed out and Harry flinched at the loud noise knowing that as soon as the man left he was going to be punished.

"I got it two days ago and I hid it because I knew you wouldn't let me read it." Harry replied looking down at his feet.

"YOUR RIGHT WE WOULDN'T HAVE GIVEN IT TO YOU. WE SWORE WHEN WE TOOK YOU IN WE WOULD STAMP OUT YOUR FREAKISHNESS!" Uncle Vernon thundered before stalking towards Harry but he was interrupted before he could get could by the man speaking.

"Mr Potter will be going to Hogwarts and I have been elected to take him to get his supplies." The man said glaring at the Dursley's before turning his eyes back to Harry. "Go and get your letter along with your supplies list." Harry ran in between his Aunt and Uncle to get towards his cupboard and picked up his letter which was still hidden underneath his pillow. When Harry turned back towards the man he was glaring and sneering at the Durlsey's and when Harry was close enough he put a hand on Harry's shoulder and guided him out of the Dursley residence before they had a chance to argue. Harry decided to go with the man because he had a feeling that if he had stayed with the Dursley's he wouldn't have survived the night.

While they were walking away Harry realised that he didn't know the man's name. "Erm... Excuse me sir?" The man turned his black eyes towards Harry and raised his eyebrow without slowing his pace. "What do I call you?" Harry asked nearly jogging to keep up with the long strides.

"Professor Snape and I will be your Potions Professor in the up-coming school year." The now named Professor Snape said while guiding Harry down an empty ally. "We are going to be Apparating. It is similar to transporting and it isn't the most pleasant experience." Professor Snape said before holding out his arm towards Harry. "You need to hold on to my arm and not let go until I tell you to. Do you understand?" He asked staring down at Harry who nodded his head before grabbing on to the arm being held out and holding on as tightly as he could.

Harry felt Professor Snape's arm twist away and tightened his grip on his arm. The next thing he knew it was black and he felt like he was getting compressed, he couldn't breathe because the pressure was so much. However the feeling was over a quickly as it began and Harry was leaning over with his free arm wrapped around his waist, trying to not throw up the meagre contents of his stomach while Professor Snape stood next to him. Professor Snape nodded his head when Harry looked at him and he finally let go of his arm and straightened up.

"Welcome to Diagon Ally Mr Potter." Professor Snape announced. Harry looked around it was like he was in a different world, the colours seemed much more vibrant in Diagon Ally than the greys that surrounded his life with the Dursley's. There were people rushing around the Ally going between shops.

"Wow." Harry whispered to himself as he looked around in awe of his surroundings. ' _I think I'm going to enjoy being a wizard.'_

 **Hi! Thanks for reading and I hope you're enjoying this so far. Stay alive frens |-/ 3**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer ~ I do not own Harry Potter.**

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After observing his surroundings for a few moments he was brought back to the present by Professor Snape talking to him. "The first place we have to go to is Gringotts." He said and the confusion must have shown on his face because Professor Snape elaborated. "It is the Wizarding bank. It is run by Goblins so when we enter you better be on your best behaviour." He warned while guiding Harry towards a building in the distance.

"But Professor Snape I don't have any money." Harry protested worried that he wouldn't be able to go to Hogwarts after all. However the Professor just scoffed.

"Your parents left you plenty of money which is right inside this very bank." Professor Snape said while gesturing towards the building in front of them. Gringotts was an imposing, snow-white multi-story marble building with white stairs leading up to a set of burnished bronze doors. Standing at the doors there was what must be a Goblin wearing a uniform of scarlet and gold guarding the door, after walking through that set of doors there was a set of silver oors which was again guarded by another Goblin. There was a warning engraved on the doors that sent a shiver down Harry's spine:

 _ **Enter, stranger, but take heed**_

 _ **Of what awaits to sin of greed**_

 _ **For those who take, but do not earn,**_

 _ **Must pay most dearly in their turn.**_

 _ **So if you see beneath our floors**_

 _ **A treasure that was never yours,**_

 _ **Thief, you have been warned, beware**_

 _ **Of finding more than treasure there.**_

After passing through these doors there was a vast marble hall with long counters stretching across its length with doors leading of to vault passageways. At the counters there was around a hundred Goblins sitting at them. Professor Snape led Harry to the main desk which stood against the far wall. When standing in front of the desk Professor Snape announced, "We are here to see Mr Potter's vault."

The Goblin leaned over the tall desk to see the both of them while speaking. "Does Mr Potter have his key?" The Goblin asked and when it opened its mouth all Harry could notice were the razor sharp teeth. Professor Snape then seemed to produce a small golden key out of thin air and handed it to the Goblin, who took the key and handed it back after giving it a thorough look.

"Griphook." The Goblin suddenly shouted and a Goblin stepped forward. "Take Mr Potter to his vault." The Goblin came to where Harry and Professor Snape were standing and them began to lead them to where they needed to go.

Harry turned around to face the Goblin sitting at the desk, "Thank you for the help." Harry said before they got out of earshot before turning to face forwards to follow Griphook and Harry saw the surprise on Professor Snape's face. "What? You said to be on my best behaviour." He said which caused the Professor to face forward and stride off quickly which caused Harry to have to jog to keep up.

An hour later Harry and Professor Snape were leaving Gringotts and headed off to buy the needed school supplies. He bought his school books and he got the potions supplies, Professor Snape had even given him some tips on how to find the best ingredients. Harry was currently heading towards that was called Madam Malkin's Robes For All Occasions to buy his school robes, after opening the door he was nudged inside the shop by Professor Snape. An older women descended upon Harry as soon as he entered the building while Professor Snape followed in close behind and then hid in the corner of the shop.

"Hogwarts, dear?" She asked smiling and when Harry nodded she guided him towards the back of the shop. "There's another boy getting his robes right now." When they arrived there was a boy who looked to be the same age with a pale, pointed face and white blond hair. Tape measures leapt up from where they were sitting on a table to come take Harry's measurements.

The boy turned to him face and when he spoke his voice came out in a bored drawl. "Hogwarts too?" The boy asked and when Harry nodded in reply he continued speaking. "What House do you think you're going to be in? I'm going to be in Slytherin, it's the only House worth being in. Then again I guess Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad, it would be much better than Hufflepuff. I would just leave the school is I was sorted there, wouldn't you?" The boy finally stopped talking long enough for Harry to reply and all he could do was nod since he had no idea what he was talking about but he didn't want the boy to know that. ' _Having less knowledge on a subject is a weakness.'_ Harry reminded himself.

"Mr Malfoy I do believe that manners dictate that you give the person you are conversing with to respond." Came Professor Snape's drawling voice from where he stood in a dark corner of the room. The boy's, Malfoy's face lit up when he heard his voice.

"Uncle Sev. What are you doing here?" Malfoy asked and Harry was shocked at how he had addressed the Professor. Professor Snape came to stand behind Harry then and put a hand on his shoulder before answering.

"I'm here with Mr Potter." As soon as those words left the Professor's lips Harry saw Malfoy turn his gaze back to him in surprise before his eyes darted up to look at his forehead.

' _Why does everyone keep looking at my scar?'_ Harry wondered to himself.

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 **Hi! Thanks for reading and I hope you're enjoying it. If you notice any mistakes please tell me so I can fix them. Stay alive frens |-/ 3**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer ~ I don't own anything :(**

"You're Harry Potter?" Malfoy asked and when Harry nodded his head in reply he put his hand out to shake. "I'm Malfoy, Draco Malfoy." Harry shook his hand struggling to supress a smile at how Draco had introduced himself. ' _Bond, James Bond.'_ Harry thought to himself and it was that thought that caused the smiling he had been supressing to break out across his face.

"Nice to meet you." Harry spoke for the first time since he had entered the shop.

"Where have you been living for the last ten years?" Draco asked curiously and Harry paused for a moment before coming to a decision whether or not to tell him. ' _It's none of his business.'_ Harry thought to himself when he saw Professor Snape open his mouth to talk.

"I would rather not say. You understand, right?" Harry smiled pleasantly before Professor Snape could say anything. For some reason his reply had the Professor surprised if the look Harry had seen was any indication, however the look faded from his face as quickly as it arrived.

"Oh right sorry. It's just that no one knew where you were and I guess curiosity got the best of me." Draco said with a smile on his face but Harry could tell he was embarrassed that he asked. ' _Then again it was a stupid question. Who would be stupid enough to tell someone that they just met where they live.'_ Harry thought to himself even though there was no need to justify himself.

"Well curiosity killed the cat." Harry replied and a comical look of confusion overcame Draco's features.

"What cat? What are you going on about?" Harry couldn't help but giggle when Draco asked the questions.

"It's a muggle phrase Draco." Professor Snape explained and it caused Harry to become the confused one.

"What's a muggle, sir?" Harry asked tilting his head to the side and raising an eyebrow questioningly.

"A muggle is what we call people who do not possess magic, Mr Potter." Professor Snape replied and Harry nodded to show he understood.

Then the women who Harry assumed to be Madam Malkin came back over to them. "You're done dear. Just go to the front of the shop to pay." She smiled before walking off again. Harry had been so busy talking that he hadn't even noticed that the measuring tape was finished. ' _Stupid. I need to pay more attention to my surroundings.'_ Harry scolded himself as he smiled at Draco.

"Well I guess I'll see you at Hogwarts then." Harry said while stepping done from the platform that he had been standing on.

"Yes, goodbye for now." Draco nodded his head.

It was after Harry had left the shop after paying that he realised something. ' _Draco was there before me, how did my robes get done before his?'_ Harry pondered to himself before deciding that it didn't matter and trotted over to Professor Snape was standing.

"We will be going for your wand now Mr Potter." Professor Snape said before walking off, Harry followed closely behind not wanting to get lost in the crowd.

The shop that the Professor had stopped outside was narrow and shabby. Peeling gold letters above the door read ' _ **Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382BC.**_ ' In the dusty window Harry could see a single wand that lay on a faded purple cushion. A tinkling bell rang somewhere in the depths of the shop as they stepped inside. It was a tiny place, which was empty except for a single spindly chair for people to sit on. Behind the counter lay thousands of narrow boxes piled neatly right up to the ceiling. Harry could feel the magic in the air which made him anticipate getting his own wand so much more.

"Good afternoon," Said a soft voice which caused Harry to jump. ' _What is wrong with me today. I keep on forgetting to be aware of my surrounding.'_ Harry then noticed that the Professor didn't seem to be surprised by the voice.

An old man was standing before them, his wide, pale eyes shining out of the darkness made Harry feel uneasy.

"Hello." Harry said hoping the break the tension in the room.

"Ah yes." The man, who Harry assumed to be Ollivander, said. "Yes, yes. I thought I'd be seeing you soon. Harry Potter." Harry could tell by the way he was speaking it wasn't a question. "You have your mother's eyes. It seems only yesterday she was in here with Professor Snape over there, buying her first wand. Ten and a quarter inches long, swishy, made of willow. Nice wand for charm work." He continued on and Harry was shocked by how much he had learned. ' _I get my eyes from my mum. I wonder what colour hair she had, I can't believe that I finally know more about her than that her name was Lily. And Professor Snape, she must have been friends with him if they came to get their wands together. But why didn't he mentioned it? Well that's a stupid question even I can tell that he is very reserved and who's to say that they stayed friends.'_ Harry thought to himself as he watched Mr Ollivander move closer to him. Harry wished he would blink, those silvery eyes were a bit creepy.

"Your father, on the other hand, favoured a mahogany wand. Eleven inches. Pliable. A little more power and excellent for Transfiguration. Well, I say your father favoured it - it's really the wand that chooses the wizard of course." He said as he continued to come closer to Harry. They were so close now that they were almost nose to nose. Harry could see his reflection in Mr Ollivander's misty eyes.

"And that's where..." Mr Ollivander paused and reached with a long, white finger out to touch the lightening shaped scar on Harry's forehead. Harry flinched back from the finger as soon as it made contact with his skin. ' _He really needs to learn about personal space._ ' Harry grumbled to himself as he tried to flatten down his hair to cover his scar, with mild success.

"I'm sorry to say I sold the wand that did it." Ollivander said softly. "Thirteen and a half inches. Yew. Powerful wand, very powerful, and in the wrong hands... Well, if I'd known what that wand was going out into the world to do..." He shook his head. "Well, now Mr Potter. Let me see." He pulled out a long measuring tape with silver markings out of his pocket. "Which is your wand arm?"

' _Wand arm? I guess he means dominant arm.'_ Harry thought to himself before answering. "My right arm." He said hoping he sounded more confident than he felt.

"Hold out your arm. That's it." He measured Harry from shoulder to finger, then wrist to elbow, shoulder to floor, knee to armpit and round his head. As he measured, he said "Every Ollivander wand has a core of a powerful magical substance, Mr Potter. We use unicorn hairs, phoenix tail feathers and heartstrings of dragons. No two Ollivander wands are the same, just as no two unicorns, dragons or phoenixes are quite the same. And of course, you will never get such good results with another wizards wand."

Harry watched as the tape measure floated around itself as it took his measurements as he listen to Mr Ollivander, who was currently flitting around the shelves, taking down boxes.

"That will do." He said, and the tape measure crumpled into a heap on the ground in front of Harry. "Right then Mr Potter. Try this one. Beechwood and dragon heartstring. Nine inches. Nice and flexible. Just take it and give it a wave."

Harry took the wand and waved the it around while feeling foolish while doing so. Mr Ollivander snatched it out of his hand almost at once before holding another wand out.

"Maple and phoenix feather. Seven inches. Quite whippy. Try-" Harry tried but it was snatched out of his had soon as he raised the wand given to him.

"No, no - here, ebony and unicorn hair, eight and a half inches, springy. Go on, go on, try it out."

Harry tried and it was at this point he zoned out and waved the wands that were given to him without paying attention. After trying several different wands Harry was beginning to become discouraged, ' _What if I don't find the right wand? Will I have to go back to the Dursley's and forget about Hogwarts.'_ Harry worried to himself. He could tell from the look on the Professor's face that he was beginning to become impatient.

"Tricky customer, eh? Not to worry, we'll find the perfect match here somewhere - I wonder, now - yes, why not - unusual combination - holly and phoenix feather, eleven inches, nice and supple." Harry heard Mr Ollivander mutter, seemingly to himself as he picked up a box and pulled out a wand that he then held out for Harry to take.

Harry took the wand. He felt a sudden warmth in his fingers. He raised his wand into the air, it was definitely his, he could feel it. He then brought it swishing down through the dusty air and a stream of silver and gold sparks shot from the end like a firework.

Mr Ollivander cried out, "Oh, bravo! Yes, indeed, oh , very good. Well, well, well... how curious... how very curious..." He put Harry's wand back into its box and wrapped it in brown paper, still muttering, "Curious... curious..."

Harry was unable to hold back his curiosity back anymore. "Sorry, but what's curious?" He asked and regretted it as soon as Mr Ollivander fixed his pale stare on him.

"I remember every wand I've every sold, Mr Potter. Every single wand. It so happes that the phoenix whose tail feather is in your wand, gave another feather - just one other. It is very curious indeed that you should be destined for this wand when its brother - why, its brother gave you that very scar." Harry swallowed in surprise and he could tell that this information surpised Professor Snape by the sharp inhale of breath he heard come from him.

"Yes, thirteen and a half inches. Yew. Curious indeed how these things happen. The wand chooses the wizard, remember... I think we must expect great things from you, Mr Potter... After all, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named did great things - terrible, yes, but great."

Harry shivered. He was now sure he didn't like Mr Ollivander. He paid seven gold Galleons for his wand and Mr Ollivander bowed them from his shop.

The late- afternoon sun hung low in the sky as Harry watched as Professor Snape pushed his robes sleeve up to reveal the watch that he was wearing and looked down to check the time. He pushed his sleeve back down which made it cover part of his hand before looking back up and he then turned his obsidian eyes towards Harry.

"Are you hungry Mr Potter?" He asked and Harry paused for a moment to think before answering. ' _Is this a trick? Is it going to be like when the Dursley's ask and if I say yes I got shouted at?'_ Harry thought to himself before deciding to take the risk and nodded in reply to the question. Professor Snape just nodded then strided off towards the end of the Alley and after Harry followed him he found the Professor standing at a brick wall. When Harry was about to ask what was happening Professor Snape removed his wand from his sleeve and tapped the wall in seemingly random places. Harry couldn't with-hold his gasp of amazement when the wall opened itself up and tried to guess what it was hiding. He was disappointed when all he saw was a door which could do with re-painting.

Inside the door was a very dark and shabby looking pub. A few old women were sitting in the corner, drinking tiny glasses of sherry. One of them was smoking a long pipe. At the bar currently stood a man who was easily the tallest person Harry had ever seen, his face was covered in a wild beard and his hair was also wild look. He looked intimidating until Harry got a good look at his beady eyes and they looked so friendly.

Harry was guided over to a empty table by Professor Snape, who handed him a menu to read. After reading all the options Harry decided to have a small Shepherd's pie. When asked he told the Professor who had decided to have the same thing and announced what they wanted to the empty air which confused Harry until he heard a popping noise and the food appeared on the table with the receipt.

"Professor Snape is tha' you?" Harry heard a booming voice asked and when he looked up he saw the humongous man heading towards their table. "Aye it is. An' who is this lil' chappy with ya. Wait is tha'-" Professor Snape interrupted the man before he could continued.

"Yes it is Hagrid. You don't want everyone to harass the boy do you?" The Professor hissed at the now named Hagrid. "You can talk to him when he gets to Hogwarts." Hagrid nodded and after throwing a teary smile towards Harry he left the pub.

"Professor?" Harry spoke up which caused Professor Snape to look up at him. "Why would everyone come to harass me?" He asked which caused the Professor to sigh.

"Mr Potter what have you been told about the night your parents died?" The Professor asked which made Harry confused but he answered.

"Aunt Petunia told me that they were drunk and got into a car crash and that was how I got my scar." Harry replied and he was even more confused when his answer seemed to make the Professor angry.

"Petunia lied to you." Harry wasn't very surprised to learn that his Aunt would lie about how his parent's died. "There was a Dark wizard called Voldemort around a few years ago. He targeted your family and killed them but from some reason he couldn't kill you. It seemed like the spell had hit you and rebounded to hit him and he hasn't been heard from since that night. You are known as the Boy-Who-Lived in the wizarding world and you are hailed a hero since Voldemort is believed to be dead." Professor Snape explained and Harry had so many questions that he wanted to ask.

"Why did he target my family?" Harry asked hoping to find out the truth but he was disappointed by the answer he got.

"I cannot tell you at this moment in time but you will be informed when you are older." The Professor said and Harry nodded disappointed.

"Spells have a different light when cast, right?" Harry asked and continued when the Professor nodded. "Was the spell cast at me that night green?"

"Yes, why do you ask?" Professor Snape and if Harry was right his face a looking slightly paler.

"I've always had a dream about a woman's voice telling me she loves me and then a high-pitched laugh before a green light surrounding me." Harry explained and Professor Snape definitely looked paler.

"How can you remember that?" Professor Snape whispered.

 **Hi! Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed it. Some of this chapter has been taken from the book. |-/ Stay alive frens.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer ~ Oh woe is me, I am not the lucky owner of Harry Potter**

 **Severus Snape**

Severus had not been having the best day. First Albus told him he had to pick up Potter to get his supplies, which meant that his day of relaxing after finishing his lesson planning went down the drain. All because Minerva was otherwise occupied and Hagrid had to collect the Philosopher's Stone from Gringotts and Albus felt it would be safer if Potter wasn't around to see it. That damn brat wasn't even in Hogwarts yet and he was ruining his day.

When Severus arrived at Number 4 Privet Drive he couldn't hold back his sneer of disgust at the sight of the boring, uniform house. He was brought out of his assessment by the door in front of him opening.

It was like a young James Potter was peering out of his from the doorway. Severus couldn't stop himself from glaring down at the boy in front of him as he stared at him. ' _I should of expected him to be rude. Just like his father.'_ Severus sneered to himself as he raised his eyebrow at the boy who was standing in front of him saying nothing.

"How can I help you, sir?" Potter asked and Severus was surprised by how anxious he sounded and how he seemed to fold in over himself, trying to appear smaller than his height. That was when Severus observed him for the first time; while sharing some traits with his father such as glasses and that nest of a hair, there was actually a lot of Lily hidden in his features. They shared the same eyes, shape and colour, he also had the same nose as Lily but those were over-shadowed by his father's features. Potter was also surprisingly short as both of his parents had been average height and he appeared to be closer to eight than eleven.

It took around ten minutes at the Dursley residence before he could leave with Potter so that they could go and buy his supplies. Severus had some suspicions about Potter's treatment from his relatives after seeing how Petunia and her husband had treated Potter in the short interaction he had seen. He had also been wondering why Potter had gone to get the letter from the cupboard underneath the stairs before he had glimpsed at the address of the letter.

After Apparating with the boy in tow he was pleasantly surprised that he wasn't sick on arrival even though he was bent over clutching his stomach. "Welcome to Diagon Alley Mr Potter." Severus couldn't help but announce when it looked like Potter had composed himself after their journey.

He watched as Potter straightened up and looked at his surroundings. The look of awe and wonderment on his face reminded Severus of the first time Lily had seen Diagon Alley when they both went to buy their school supplies.

"Wow." Potter whispered seemingly to himself as he watched every one around him scurrying from shop to shop.

First they went to Gringotts to collect Potter's money, which is where Severus was first shocked by Potter's politeness though he continued to be everytime it happened during the shopping. After Gringotts they went to go buy Potter's supplies, which included his school robes at Madam Malkin's which is where they had bumped into his Godson, they then went to go and buy his wand from Ollivander's. They were in the dusty shop for over an hour before they found the correct wand for Potter.

Severus was glad that Ollivander and Potter were too focused on each other when the information of Potter's wand being the brother of Voldemorts was revealed or they would have seen how shocked and horrified he was by the information.

After leaving Ollivander's Severus pushed up the sleeve of his robes and looked down at his wrist where his watch was laying to check the time. When he saw that it was nearing Dinner time he asked Potter whether he was hungry and after getting an affirmative reply he guided him towards the direction of the Leaky Cauldron. When he arrived he once again guided Potter to a table in the back hoping to sit down unnoticed by the half-giant he had seen sitting at the bar.

Severus should have known that he would never be that lucky as Hagrid came up to see them as soon as their food had arrived at the table. Thankfully he had managed to interrupt Hagrid before he informed everyone inside the pub that Harry Potter was among them.

"Professor?" Potter spoke up as soon as Hagrid had left the table. "Why would everyone come to harass me?" He asked and Severus sighed to himself, wondering why he would ask such a stupid question.

"Mr Potter what have you been told about the night your parents died?" Severus asked, expecting Potter to say that he was a hero.

"Aunt Petunia told me that they were drunk and got into a car crash and that was how I got my scar." Potter answered and Severus could feel anger flowing through his at how Petunia had lied about how her own sister had died, her own flesh and blood and see had portrayed her as a drunk.

"Petunia lied to you." Potter didn't appear to be surprised by the announcement. "There was a Dark wizard called Voldemort around a few years ago. He targeted your family and killed them but for some reason he couldn't kill you. It seemed like the spell had hit you and rebounded to hit him and he hadn't been heard from since that night. You are known as The-Boy-Who-Lived in the wizarding world and you are hailed a hero since Voldemort is believed to be dead." Severus explained, watching Potter's expression to make sure that he was okay.

"Why did he target my family?" Potter asked and Severus paused for a moment before coming up with an acceptable answer.

"I cannot tell you at this moment in time but you will be informed when you are older." Severus answered and Potter nodded in reply but his disappointment was obvious.

"Spells have a different light when cast, right?" Severus was confused by the seemingly random question but he nodded his head none the less. "Was the spell cast at me that green?"

' _How could he know that?'_ Severus thought to himself as the blood drained from his face.

"Yes, why do you ask?" Severus asked as a feeling of dread washed over him.

"I've always had a dream about a woman's voice telling me she loves me and then a high-pitched laugh before a green light surrounds me." Potter explained and Severus felt sick at the thought of Lily's son only memory of her being the night that she was murdered.

"How can you remember that?" Severus whispered.

"That means it really did happen." Potter said before lowering his eyes to the table and picking up his fork and eating his food.

' _How is he acting so calm about this. Either there is something seriously wrong with the boy or he is a very talented actor.'_ Severus pondered to himself as he picked up his own fork and beginning eat his own meal, while keeping his eyes locked on the figure sitting opposite him.

* * *

 **Hi! Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed reading Severus POV. I wanted to write this yesterday but I had a migraine (I-I-I I've got a migraine and my pain will range from up, down and sideway). Damn TOP anytime I hear that word now all I think about is the song. But anyway... Stay alive frens |-/**


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer ~ Nope don't own Harry Potter.**

 **Harry Potter**

"How can you remember that?" Professor Snape whispered.

As soon as Harry heard that his heart sunk down to his stomach. He decided right then to try and push away the thoughts trying to form in his head, ' _If the Dursley's have taught me anything, it's to not show my emotions because if I do they'll only be used against me.'_ He thought to himself before talking to the Professor.

"That means it really did happen." Harry said before looking down to the table where his food was laying and picked the fork up to eat, even though he didn't feel like eating anymore. ' _Another thing I learned from the Dursley's. If you have food, eat it even if you aren't hungry because you never know when you might get your next meal.'_ Harry took small bite of his food before deciding to try and change to topic.

"In Madam Malkin's that boy, Draco, he mentioned something about House's and I was wondering if you could explain?" Harry asked keeping his eyes on his food. ' _I need to know things like this so I am not at a disadvantage. I need to catch up on the necessary information.'_ He thought to himself as he waited for an answer.

"Well when you first get to Hogwarts you get sorted into Houses based on your personality traits. There are four House's and they all have different personality traits; Gryffindor is for people who are courageous, bravery, nerve and chivalry, Ravenclaw is for people who intelligence, creativity, learning and wit, Hufflepuff is for hard workers, patience, justice and loyalty and finally Slytherin is for the ambitious, the ones capable of being a leader, cunning and resourcefulness." Professor Snape explained in bite of his own Shepard's pie.

"Where did the different names for the House's come from?" Harry asked pushing his fork into the mashed potato and pushing around the plate before forcing himself to take another bite.

"They are named after the founder of Hogwarts. Godric Gryffindor, Rowena Ravenclaw, Helga Hufflepuff and Salazar Slytherin." Professor Snape further explained.

"What House were you in, sir?" Harry asked, hoping that he could find out more about his mum.

"I was in Slytherin and I am now the Slytherin Head of House." Professor Snape said before he paused and raised in eyebrow at Harry, "Your mother was in Gryffindor." Harry smiled back at the Professor, unashamed at being caught as he had got the information that he wanted.

"What else can you tell me about the House's?" Harry asked feeling like if he ate anymore he would be sick so he put his fork down.

"Each House has its own mascot. A lion for Gryffindor, an eagle for Ravenclaw, a badger for Hufflepuff and a snake for Slytherin." Professor Snape answered.

Harry brightend when he heard the mascot for the Slytherin House. "A snake?" Professor Snape raised his eyebrow before nodding. "They are seriously misunderstood creatures. They're so friendly or the ones I've talked to are at least." Harry said and he was confused when he saw the Professor's other eyebrow join the first one high on his forehead.

"You've talked to snakes?" Harry was shocked and worried by how surprised the Professor was at this information since he had assumed it was normal among wizards.

"Yeah... Is that- is that not normal?" Harry said hesitantly.

"It is very rare but it's not unheard of." Professor Snape said before looking down at Harry's plate and his eyebrows furrowed. "Are you not hungry?" He asked and Harry looked down at his plate to see that it was still half full.

"I had a big lunch sir." Harry smiled and the Professor hummed before finishing his own meal.

"Well I think we are done for the day. It's time to take you back to your relatives." Professor Snape said before pulling some of the strange coins from his pocket. Two Galleon's and four sickles were put down on the table.

Harry went to go get his own money but Professor Snape put his hand out to stop him.

"Do not worry I paid for both of our meals."

"Professor I can't let you pay for my meal." Harry protested and went to go get his money again but the Professor stopped him once again.

"That is not necessary. Think of it as a birthday present." Professor Snape said before pushing his chair back and after a moment Harry did the same, after picking up his school supplies.

' _I can't believe he knows my birthday.'_ Harry thought to himself as they made their way out of the front of the pub. He was surprised when he left the pub it looked like he was in London. Harry followed the Professor when he made his way down an alley and grabbed a hold of his arm when it was held out.

Harry was prepared for the sensation this time so after arriving back in the same alley they left that day. He followed the Professor towards the Dursley residence and when he arrived he was relieved when he saw the scared looks his relatives were throwing up. ' _They're going to be too scared to do anything to me.'_ Harry thought to himself before turning towards the Professor.

"Thank you for helping me get my supplies Professor." Harry said to the Professor smiling and he would swear that he could see a smile curling at the edges of Professor Snape's lips before he spoke.

"It was no problem. I will see you September 1st Mr Potter." The Professor said before putting his hand in his pocket and pulling something out which he then passed to Harry.

When he looked down at what had been handed to him it looked like a train ticket but something was wrong. It said Platform Nine and Three-quarters. When he looked up to ask Professor Snape explained.

"At King's Cross you got to platforms Nine and Ten and run into the wall between the two platforms and that will take you to the train that will take you to Hogwarts," The Professor paused for a second before throwing a looking at the Dursley's a look before talking a little louder with a smirk on his face. "School For Witchcraft and Wizardry." Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon flinched at the name and the smirk became bigger.

Harry smiled at Professor Snape who nodded his head and then left Harry with his relatives.

 **Hi! SO SORRY IT TOOK A WHILE. I've been really ill and I have only just got enough energy to write so there might be mistakes (I was also destracted by Amino, oops). Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer ~ I OWN NOTHING!**

The weeks leading up to the 1st of September consisted of reading all of his school books, so that he could try and be prepared for his journey into the Magical world. The Dursley's had tried to take his wand and school supplies away from him; they soon stopped as soon as he insinuated that bad things happen to people who touch other people wands. Harry had been told to move his meagre belongings upstairs to Dudley's second bedroom, which Dudley burst in to fake tears about, because the Dursley's were worried that someone was watching the house after they had seen how the letter was addressed.

Harry had also been spending time with Hedwig. Hedwig was a beautiful snowy owl that he had woken up to at his window the day after his birthday; he had named her that after he looked through his History of Magic textbook. She had a small package and a note attached to her leg that said:

 **'Mr Potter,**

 **I thought it may benefit you if you were to have an owl at your disposal.**

 **The owl is a female and has yet to be given a name.**

 **In the package she is carrying is all the supplies needed for her till you arrive at Hogwarts. They have been shrunk, when you wish for them to become there normal size again all you have to is tap them with your wand.**

 **Prof. S Snape'**

On the last day of August he decided he'd better speak to his Aunt and Uncle about getting to King's Cross station the next day, so he went down stairs to where they were sitting in the living room, where they were watching a quiz show on the television. He cleared his throat to let them know he was there and both Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon flinched while Dudley continued to keep his eyes locked on to the television, blocking out everyone else in the room.

"Er - Uncle Vernon?" Harry asked, cringing internally at how meek he sound. He continued to speak after Uncle Vernon grunted to show that he had heard. "I need to be at King's Cross tomorrow so that I can go to Hogwarts." Harry was pleased to hear that he had sounded much more confident while speaking.

Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon both flinched so violently that it caused Dudley to tear his eyes away from the television to throw his parents a look before turning his eyes back to the quiz show he was watching.

Harry continued to speak ignoring the flinches. "Would it be all right if you gave me a lift?" He asked, hoping that if he sounded polite there would be less argument from his Uncle

Harry got another grunt in reply to his question which he was taking as a yes.

"Thank you." He said before turning around to walk back upstairs to his bedroom.

However before he left the living room Uncle Vernon spoke up for the first time since Harry had entered the room.

"Funny way to get to a Wizards' school, the train. Magic carpets all got punctures, have they?" Uncle Vernon snarked.

Harry debated to himself before deciding to turn around and say something.

"Well actually I could have left by broom stick but I thought that you wouldn't want the neighbours' to see." He replied and he could see both his Aunt and Uncle go pale at the thought of the neighbours' seeing Harry being 'freakish'.

"Where is this school anyway?"

"I don't know." Harry admitted before pulling the ticket Professor Snape had given him out of his pocket. "I just take the train from platform nine and three-quarters and eleven o'clock." Harry read as his Aunt and Uncle stared.

"Platform what?"

"Nine and three-quarters."

"Don't talk rubbish," said Uncle Vernon, "there is no platform nine and three-quarters."

"It says that on my ticket. I'll see you in the morning Uncle Vernon." Harry smiled pleasantly before turning back around and going upstairs to his room.

Harry woke up at five o'clock the next morning and was too excited and nervous to go back to sleep. He got up and pulled on his jeans because he had a feeling that he wasn't supposed to be seen in his wizards' robes. He checked his Hogwarts list yet again to make sure he had everything he needed, saw that Hedwig was shut safely in her cage and then paced the room, waiting for the Dursley's to get up. Two hours later, Harry's huge, heavy trunk had been loaded into the Dursley's car.

They reached King's Cross station at half past ten. Uncle Vernon dumped Harry's trunk on to a trolley and wheeled it into the station for him. Harry thought it was strangely nice for his Uncle until he saw the unpleasant look on his face.

"Good luck finding your platform, boy." Uncle Vernon said with a nasty grin on his face.

Harry just smiled back before taking the trolley from his Uncle's hands and making his way towards platform's nine and ten, remembering the instructions from Professor Snape on how to get on to the platform. He decided to wait for a few minutes to see if anyone else entered the platform to make sure that he was doing it right.

He saw a large family of red heads making their way past him and just before he looked over them to continue his searched he noticed that one of the sons' had a owl with him. Harry continued to watch them and watched as the one with the owl, obviously the oldest, walked at a fast pace into the wall between platforms nine and ten. Even though he knew what was going to happen he was still amazed at the sight of the boy walking through the wall. Afterwards the twins' walked through the barrier, then the last son before the mother walked through the barrier with her daughter by her side.

Harry walked over to the same wall before taking a deep breath. He started the run at the wall but before he could make contact with the wall he shut his eyes tightly, bracing for impact.

His eyes slammed open when he heard the sound of a train and he was standing at what the sign proclaimed to be platform nine and three quarters with a red train sitting on the rails.

"Wow." Harry whispered to himself before pushing his trolley towards the train that would be taking his to Hogwarts.

 **Hi! Sorry again for it being late but my body seriously hates me! Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it. If you see any mistakes please tell me so I can fix it. Stay alive frens |-/ 3**


	8. Chapter 8

Harry couldn't help but look at everything around him as he pushed his trolley towards the red train sitting on the tracks. It was all so bright and colourful, he can't believe that this wonderful world was kept away from him. He can't help but feel sorry for the people who won't get to see it.

' _Muggle, I need to remember that. I need to use the right words or people will look down at me. Then again if people look down at me then they won't expect me to defend myself. Maybe I should give it a try.'_ Harry thought to himself before focusing in front of him.

A scarlet steam engine was waiting next to the platform packed with people. A sign overhead said _**Hogwarts Express, 11 O'clock**_. Harry looked behind him and saw a wrought-iron archway where the ticket box had been, with the words _**Platform Nine and Three-Quarters**_ on it. He had done it.

Steam from the engine drifted over the heads of the chattering crowd, while cats of every colour were wound here and there between their legs. Owls hooted to each other in a disgruntled sort of way over the babble and the scraping of heavy trunks.

The first few carriages were already packed with students, some hanging out of the windows to talk to their families, some fighting over seats. Harry ducked his head and tried to flatten his hair down to try and cover his scar as much as possible before he pushed his trolley of down the platform in search of an empty seat. He passed a round faced boy who was saying, "Gran, I've lost my toad again."

"Oh, Neville." He heard the old women sigh.

A boy with dreadlocks was surrounded by a small crowd.

"Give us a look, Lee, go on."

The boy lifted the lid of a box in his arms and the people around him shrieked and yelled as something inside poked out a long, hairy leg.

Harry pressed on through the crowd until he found an empty compartment near the end of the train. He put Hedwig inside first and then started to shove and heave his trunk towards the train door. He tried to lift it up the steps but could hardly raise one end and twice he dropped it painfully on his foot.

"Want a hand?" It was one of the red haired twins he'd seen before.

"Yes, please." Harry panted.

"Oy, Fred! C'mere and help!"

With the twins help, Harry's trunk was at last tucked away in the corner of the compartment.

"Thanks" Harry said, pushing his now sweaty hair out of his eyes.

"What's that?" asked one of the twins suddenly, pointing at Harry's lightning scar.

"Blimey," said the other twin. "Are you-?"

"He is." said the first twin. "Aren't you?" he added to Harry.

' _Perfect time to find out if I can get people to look at me as someone who is weak, someone who needs protecting. If it does it'll make it easier for me if I do get attacked in anyway, always better to think the worst of people because they can't surprised you then.'_ Harry thought to himself before trying to make himself look pathetic.

"Look would you please not say anything." Harry pleaded staring up at them while lifting his hand up to try and cover up his scar again. "I don't really want people hounding me with questions about the night my parents were murdered."

The twins looked to each other and it seemed like they were somehow communicating with each other even though they weren't speaking. They then both seemed to have made a decision and turned to face Harry with a sombre expression and nodded their heads. Then to his relief, a voice came floating in through the train's open door.

"Fred? George? Are you there?"

"Coming, Mum."

With a last look at Harry, the twins hopped off the train.

Harry sat down next to the window where, half hidden, he could watched the red haired family on the platform and hear what they were saying. Their mother had just taken out her handkerchief.

"Ron, you've got something on your nose."

The youngest boy tried to jerk out of the way, but she grabbed him and began scrubbing the end of his nose.

"Mum - geroff." He wriggled free

Harry burned with jealousy and resentment, the boy, Ron, didn't understand how lucky he was to have a mother to fuss over him. He took a deep breathe and tried to calm down.

' _Of course he doesn't understand, he still has his mother. I probably would have taken my parents for granted if mine were alive.'_ Harry thought to himself.

"Aaah, has ickle Ronnie got somefink on his nosie?" Said one of the twins.

"Shut up." Said Ron.

"Where's Percy?" Said their mother.

"He's coming now."

The oldest boy came striding into sight. He had already changed into his billowing black Hogwarts robes and Harry noticed a shiny red and gold badge on his chest with the letter ' _ **P'**_ on it.

"Can't stay long,Mother." he said. "I'm up front, the Prefects have got two compartments to themselves-"

"Oh, are you a Prefect, Percy?" said one of the twins with an ar of great surprise. "You should have said something, we had no idea."

"Hang on, I think I remember him saying something about it." said the other twin. "Once-"

"Or twice-"

"A minute-"

"All summer-"

"Oh, shut up," said Percy the Prefect.

"How come Percy get new robes, anyway?" said one of the tins.

"Because he's a Prefect," said their mother fondly. "All right, dear, well, have a good term- send me an owl when you get there."

She kissed Percy on the cheek and he left. Then she turned to the twins.

"Now, you two - this year, you behave yourselves. If I get one more owl telling me you've - you've blown up a toilet or - "

"Blown up a toilet? We've never blown up a toilet."

"Great idea though, thanks, Mum."

"It's not funny. And look after Ron."

"Don't worry, ickle Ronniekins is safe with us."

"Shut up," said Ron again. He was almost as tall as the twins already and his nose was still pink where his mother had rubbed it,

Harry leant back in quickly to leave the family to say goodbye privately now that he knew that the twins weren't going to reveal who he was.

A few moments later a whistle sounded.

"Hurry up!" he heard the mother shout, and he could see the three boys clamber onto the train. They leant back out of the window for her to kiss them goodbye and their younger sister began to cry.

"Don't, Ginny, we'll send you loads of owls."

"We'll send you a Hogwarts toilet seat."

"George!"

"Only joking, Mum."

The train began to move. Harry saw the boys' mother waving and their sister, half laughing, half crying, running to keep up with the train until it gathered too much speed; then she fell back and waved.

Harry watched the girl and her mother disappear as the train rounded the corner.

' _I can't believe I'm on my way to Hogwarts to learn magic. I still can't believe that this is all really happening and not just a dream.'_

 **Hi! So sorry I haven't updated this in a while but I haven't been in the best place emotionally or mentally and I didn't want it to effect the fic. I hope you enjoyed it! |-/ Stay alive frens.**


	9. Chapter 9

Harry stared out the window watching as houses flashed past. He could feel the excitement and anticipation rising the longer he was on the train. He had the thought of it all being an elaborate prank lingering in the back of his mind, even when he went to Diagon Alley and bought his school supplies. He just couldn't comprehend that all this was real, that magic was real. Harry didn't have any idea what he was going to learn and where he was going to go - but he knew it had to be better than what he was leaving behind.

The door of the compartment slid open to reveal the youngest redheaded boy came in.

"Anyone sitting there?" He asked, pointing at the seat opposite Harry. "Everywhere else is full."

Harry shook his head and the boy sat down. He glanced at Harry then looked quickly out of the window, pretending he hadn't looked. Harry saw he still had a black mark on his nose.

"Hey, Ron."

The twins were back.

"Listen, we're going down the middle of the train - Lee Jordan's got a giant tarantula down there."

"Right," Mumbled Ron.

"Harry," Said the other twin, "did we introduce ourselves? Fred and George Weasley. And this is Ron, our brother. See you later then."

"Bye," Said Harry and Ron. The twins smiled and then slid the compartment door shut behind them.

"So your Harry then?" Ron asked before continuing when he received a nod. "Did you know Harry Potter is going to be starting Hogwarts this year? I can't believe that I'm going to be in the same year as him. We're probably going to be best mates, since my family has been in Gryffindor for centuries and everyone knows he's going to be in Gryffindor, how could he go to any other House when he was the one to kill You-Know-Who?"

Harry raised his eyebrow at the beginning of the rant and by the end of it they were both resting high on his forehead. He couldn't help but scoff at the boy who seemed to think he knew more about Harry than he did himself.

"What?" Ron glared.

"I can tell you know if you keep going on like this then he isn't going to want to be friends be with you." Harry sighed before leaning his head against the window and watching the passing scenery.

"Oh and what makes you think that?" Ron sneered.

Harry covered his smirk with his hand, looking forward to wiping the look off of the boy's face.

"Oh didn't you know? I'm Harry Potter." stated Harry, throwing a disinterested look towards the redhead to see the gobsmacked look on his face.

He then watched as Ron's eyes narrowed and stared at Harry's forehead.

"Show me the scar then." Ron ordered.

Harry just sighed and went back to looking outside of the window.

While Ron had been ranting, the train had carried them out of London. Now they were speeding past fields full of cows and sheep. They were quiet for a time, watching the fields and lanes flick past.

Around half past twelve there was a great clattering outside in the corridor and a smiling, dimpled woman slid back their door and said, "Anything off the trolley, dears?"

Harry, who hadn't had any breakfast, leapt to his feet and made his way to the cart, ignoring how Ron's ears went pink and he muttered that he'd brought sandwiches. Harry went out into the corridor.

He had never had any money for sweets with the Dursleys and now that he had pockets rattling with gold and silver he was ready to buys as many Mars Bars as he could carry - but the woman didn't have Mars Bars. What she did have were Bertie Bott's Every-Flavour Beans. Drooble's Best Blowing Gum, Chocolate Frogs, Pumpkin Pasties, Cauldron Cakes, Liquorice Wands and a number of other strange things Harry had never seen in his life. Not wanting to miss anything, he got some of everything and paid the woman eleven silver Sickles and seven bronze Knuts.

Ron stared as Harry brought it all back into the compartment and tipped it onto an empty seat.

Harry sat back down in his seat and picked up a Pumpkin Pasty before taking a large bite out of it.

Ron had taken out a lumpy package and unwrapped it. There were four sandwiches in there. He pulled one out and grumbled to himself. "She always forgets I don't like corned beef."

Harry sighed.

"Swap you for one of these," said Harry, holding up a pasty. "Go on -"

"You don't want this, it's all dry." said Ron. "She hadn't got much time," he added quickly, "you know, with five of us."

"At least you have a mother to care enough to feed you." Harry muttered before shoving the Pumpkin Pasty into Ron's hands and taking a sandwich.

After deciding to give Ron a few more of the sweets, they both sat in silence as they made their way through all of Harry's pasties and cakes.

Harry picked up a Chocolate Frog and spun the package around in his hand to try and work out what it was. After contemplating it for a few moments Harry unwrapped his Chocolate Frog and out fell an animate frog shaped chocolate and a card.

Harry grabbed the frog before it could jump away and watched it for a moment before taking a bite. He then picked up the card that had fallen. It showed a man's face. He wore half-moon glasses, had a long crooked nose and flowing silver hair, beard and moustache. Underneath the picture was the name **_Albus Dumbledore_**.

 _'So this is Dumbledore.'_ Harry mused to himself before he turned over the card and read the writing on the back.

 ** _Famous Witch_**

 ** _Or_**

 ** _Wizards_**

 ** _Albus Dumbledore,_**

 ** _currently_**

 ** _Headmaster of_**

 ** _Hogwarts._**

 ** _Considered by_**

 ** _many the greatest_**

 ** _wizard of modern_**

 ** _times, Professor_**

 ** _Dumbledore is_**

 ** _Particularly_**

 ** _famous for his_**

 ** _defeat of the Dark_**

 ** _Wizard_**

 ** _Grindelwald in_**

 ** _1945, for the_**

 ** _discovery of the_**

 ** _twelve uses of_**

 ** _dragon's blood and_**

 ** _his work on_**

 ** _alchemy with his_**

 ** _partner, Nicolas_**

 ** _Flamel. Professor_**

 ** _Dumbledore enjoys_**

 ** _chamber music and_**

 ** _Hitenpin bowling._**

Harry turned the card back over and saw to his astonishment, that Dumbledore's face had disappeared. He managed to keep his surprise to himself, just barely.

Harry looked up and he noticed how Ron's eyes had strayed to the pile of Chocolate Frogs waiting to be unwrapped. He sighed once again before throwing a few towards him.

Harry stared down at the card in his hand just in time to see Dumbledore sidle back into the picture on his card, who then gave him a small smile. Ron was more interested in eating the frogs than looking at the Famous Witches and Wizards cards, but Harry couldn't keep his eyes off them. Soon he had not only Dumbledore but Morgana, Hengist of Woodcroft, Alberic Grunnion Circe, Paracelsus and Merlin. He finally tore his eyes away from the druidess Cliodna, who was scratching her nose, to open a bag of Bertie Bott's Every-Flavour Beans.

"You want to be careful with those," Ron warned Harry. "When they say every flavour, they _mean_ every flavour - you know, you get all the ordinary ones like chocolate and peppermint and marmalade, but then you can get spinach and liver and tripe. George reckons he had a bogey-flavoured one once."

Harry only mutters a "thank you" before putting them back down, deciding to try them at another time.

The countryside now flying past the window was becoming wilder. The neat fields had gone. Now there were woods, twisting rivers and dark green hills.

 ** _'I wonder what it's like at Hogwarts.'_** **Harry wondered as he leaned his head against the window.**

 **Hi! Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it. I don't have an excuse for not updating sooner... I just got distracted by writing other things and then I started drawing so I got kinda absorbed in it. But I'm starting the next chapter for this and Surviving Slytherins so hopefully that'll be up soon.**


	10. Chapter 10

Harry didn't feel like putting up with any mindless chatter from Ron, so he decided to go through his trunk and pull out a text book to read. The first book he touched was **Magical Drafts and Potions**.

There was a knock on the door of their compartment and the round-faced boy Harry had passed on platform nine and three-quarters came in. He looked tearful.

"Sorry," he said, "But have you seen a toad at all?"

When they both shook their heads, he wailed, "I've lost him! He keeps getting away from me!"

"Do you want help looking for your toad?" Harry asked cocking his head to the side.

The boy seemed surprised at the offer before shaking his head.

"Thank you but someone is already helping and I don't think people would be happy about too many First Years wandering around."

"He'll turn up." said Harry.

"Yes," said the boy miserably, "Well, if you see him…"

He left.

"Don't know why he's so bothered," scoffed Ron. "If I'd brought a toad I'd lose it as quick as possible."

"Oh? And what brilliant pet did you bring?" Harry cocked his eyebrow at the redhead.

"Err…" the other boy seemed to deflate at that. He then reach into his pocket and pulled out a fat, grey rat. "His names Scabbers, been in the family for years."

The rat was still sleeping even though it had been disturbed from its resting place in Ron's jacket.

"I tried to turn him yellow yesterday to make him more interesting, but the spell didn't work. I'll show you, look…"

He rummaged around in his trunk and pulled out a very battered-looking wand. It was chipped in places and something white was glinting at the end.

"Unicorn hair's nearly poking out. Anyway-"

He had just raised his wand the the compartment door slid open again. The toadless boy was back, but this time he had a girl with him. She was already wearing her new Hogwarts robes.

"Has anyone seen a toad? Neville's lost one." she said. She had a bossy sort of voice, lots of bushy brown hair and rather large front teeth.

"We've already told him we haven't seen it," said Ron, but the girls wasn't listening, she was looking at the wand in his hand.

"Oh, are you doing magic? Let's see it, then."

She sat down. Ron looked taken aback.

"Er - all right."

He cleared his throat.

"Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow,

Turn this stupid, fat rat yellow."

"Are you sure that's a real spell?" said the girl, "Well, it's not very good, is it? I've tried a few simple spells just for practice and it's all worked for me. Nobody in my family's magic at all, it was ever such a surprise when I got my letter, but I was ever so please, of course. I mean, it's the very best school of witchcraft there is, I've heard - I've learnt all our set books off by heart, of course, I just hope it will be enough - I'm Hermione Granger, b the way, who are you?"

She said all this very fast.

Harry looked at Ron and wasn't surprised to see the stunned look on his face.

' _I doubt he even picked up a single book, no matter memorised multiple books.'_ Harry thought to himself, barely restraining from rolling his eyes.

"I'm Ron Weasley." Ron muttered.

"Harry Potter." sighed Harry, wishing he would have been able to get away with just saying his first name but knowing he wouldn't since everyone else gave their surnames.

"Are you really?" said Hermione. "I know all about you, of course - I got a few extra books for background reading, and you're in **Modern Magical History** and **The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts** and **Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century.** "

"Oh you know all about you do you? What's my favourite colour then?" Harry asked accompanied by a saccharine smile.

Hermione seemed stunned at the reply, before she composed herself and released a breath huffily.

"You're just trying to be difficult, which I have to say is really immature."

"I think you should be more careful what you say around people. You thought you knew all about me from a few books that I didn't even know existed, you thought you knew all about me from one single event in my life. In anything I think you're the immature one. Didn't anyone ever tell you that books aren't all knowing?" Harry asked raising his eyebrow at the girl.

It seemed the girl just ignored most of what he said when she continued on speaking.

"Goodness, you didn't know, I'd have found out everything I could if it was me," said Hermione. "Do either of you know what house you'll be in? I've been asking around and I hope I'm in Gryffindor, It sounds by far the best, I hear Dumbledore himself was one, but I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad… Anyway, we'd better go and look for Neville's toad. You two had better change, you know, I expect we'll be there soon."

And she left, but before the toadless boy could follow Harry spoke up.

"Neville?" The boy spun around at the sound of his name, "I was thinking, you said that this isn't the first time he's escaped?" Harry paused before continuing after the boy nodded his head. "Well maybe your toad is escaping because he isn't happy with where he's being kept, so if you got an enclosure for him if you haven't already and make sure he has stuff that he enjoys." Harry suggested and Neville's face lit up.

"Yeah that sounds great!" Neville exclaimed excitedly, "I've actually had Trevor in my pocket, I didn't even think of that. Thank you!"

Harry just smiled in reply. Neville then turned to follow after Hermione.

"Whatever House I'm in, I hope she's not in it." said Ron. "They again if she gets into Gryffindor, I don't know where I would go. I guess Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad, but imagine if they put me in Slytherin."

"What's wrong with Slytherin?" Harry asked, personally thinking that it had sounded like the best House when Professor Snape had described them.

"What's wrong with - It's the House You-Know-Who was in!" Ron hissed.

"And?" Harry asked confused at the reasoning.

"And it's where most of his followers were from as well! The House is where all the evil, slimy snakes go!"

"Just because a few people were bad doesn't mean that everyone is." Harry responded, leaning back in his seat and crossing his arms over his chest.

"I knew it! You're not really Harry Potter." Ron glared.

"Yes I am." Harry sighed, rolling his eyes.

"If you're really Harry Potter then show me your scar." Was demanded just as the compartment door was opened.

"Are you really trying to order him to show you his scar?" Came the drawling voice that Harry recognised as Draco Malfoy.

Both Ron and Harry turned to face the voice and saw three people in the compartment doorway, one of them being Draco Malfoy and the other two being people he didn't recognise. Both of them were thickset and looked extremely mean, standing at either side of Draco they looked like bodyguards.

"Then again looking at you… red hair and hand me down robes? You must be a Weasley." Malfoy sneered at the redhead.

Ron just stared at Malfoy seeming dumbstruck before his head snapped towards Harry.

"Are you going to let him talk to me like that?" Ron snarled, his face flushing a bright red in anger.

"Why wouldn't I?" Harry raised his eyebrow. "You have a mouth and even though you haven't proved it, I'm assuming you have a brain, so you can defend yourself."

Ron stared for moment, his eyes wide before speaking up.

"Yeah but we're friends and friends defend each other!" exclaimed the redhead.

Harry eyebrows were both raised in shock.

"We're not friends just because I shared some sweets with you. Especially since I heard how you were speaking about me."

"But I didn't know you were Harry Potter!" Ron attempted to defend himself pathetically.

"And that just means that you didn't filter what you said and that it was more likely to be truthful and I don't feel like being friends with someone who assumes to know about me than I know about myself and especially since we barely know each other." Harry explained.

Ron's face was as red as his hair as he grabbed all of his things and left the compartment without saying anything else.

It was now only the four of them left in the compartment.

 **Hey! Wow updating again so quickly?! I must be getting ill! Anyway thanks for reading I hope you enjoyed it! Stay alive frens |-/**


	11. Chapter 11

It was quiet for a moment before Harry spoke up, breaking the silence that had fallen over the compartment.

"Was there a reason you came in here?" He asked raising an eyebrow at the blond.

"I was just coming to say hello and see if you wanted to sit together since it seemed like you hadn't had much of a chance to meet anyone." Draco explained with a practiced smile on his face.

"Oh, how… nice of you." Harry forced a fake smile on his face, "And who are your companions?"

"Oh, this is Crabbe and this Goyle." said the blond, waving a hand in a careless gesture.

"Nice to meet you both." Harry nodded to both of the boys and only got grunts from they in reply.

Malfoy made his way further into the compartment and walked over to the seat where Ron had been sitting previously. He crinkled up his nose in disgust at the previously occupied seat and sniffed before sitting next to it, making sure to not touch the ther seat at all. Crabbe and Goyle sat down at either side of Malfoy, still managing to make themselves look like bodyguards.

Harry sighed before closing his forgotten book, it was obvious that he wasn't going to be able to read anytime soon.

"So why were you sitting with Weasley?" Malfoy asked with a sneer on his face.

"Apparently there was nowhere else free for him." Harry explained leaning back in his seat, wishing that he was alone so that he could re-read his Potions textbook "How do you know the Weasley's?"

"Oh most Pureblood families know of each other," Draco explained, while Harry made a mental note to himself to find out what a 'pureblood' was. "Then again Weasley's are a disgrace to Pureblood families, the filthy blood traitors."

Harry stayed quiet, not knowing what to say. It was then the compartment door was open and Harry was about to send a mental thanks when he saw who it was, Hermione Granger, the girl who would believe anything as long as it was written in a book.

Granger began talking as soon as the door opened.

"Honestly why did you and Ron have to get into an argument." She shook her head and release a great sigh. "He's been searching for ages looking for another compartment with enough room for him."

"Is that all you wanted Granger?" Harry raised his eyebrow at the girl.

"You'd better hurry up and put your robes on. I've just been up the front of the train to ask the driver and he says we're nearly there. I still can't believe you've been fighting, you'll be in trouble before we even get there!" She lectured with her arms crossed over her chest.

"Not that it's any of your business but I haven't been fighting. Now would you mind leaving so that we can change?"

"All right - I only came in here because people outside are behaving very childishly, racing up and down the corridors," said Granger in a sniffy voice.

Harry peered out the window as she left. It was getting dark. He could see mountains and forests under a deep-purple sky. The train did seem to be slowing down.

"Granger, that's what you said her name was?" He asked but continued on without waiting for an answer. "Granger… I don't recognise the name, I suppose she could be a half-blood but with those manners I doubt it." He sniffed, sounding remarkably like Granger in that moment of time.

"That means she must be a mudblood." He spat the word out as though even the sound of it made him feel ill. "I don't understand why they let that sort into Hogwarts, It's an absolute disgrace."

' _Well I can guess that pureblood probably means that they come from a family of witches and wizards, so a half-blood must mean that one parent has magic while the other is a muggle. So a mudblood… That must mean people that have magic even though there parents don't.'_ Harry concluded. Malfoy sounded like a racist and Harry couldn't wait until he could get away from him.

' _If I remember correctly Malfoy said that he believed that he was going to end up in Slytherin… Maybe it's not the right House for me if this is how everyone acts, then again I can't judge the House because of the actions of a few.'_

"Well we should probably go back to our own compartment so that we can change into our robes. It was good talking to you Potter." Malfoy said before pushing himself from his seat and making his way to the compartment door.

The only reply Harry gave was a nod of his head.

The door shut behind the three boys and Harry was left alone.

Harry put his book away before taking off his jacket and pulled on his long black robes.

A voice echoed through the train. "We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes' time. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately."

Harry's stomach lurched with nerves and he wished he stilled had his book so that he could distract himself. Harry placed the last of his sweets in his pockets and brushed his hair down over his forehead to make sure it covered his scar before he joined the crowd thronging outside.

The train slowed right down and finally stopped. People pushed their way towards the door and out onto a tiny, dark platform. Harry shivered in the cold night air. Then a lamp came bobbing over the head of the students and Harry heard an unfamiliar voice. "Firs'-years! Firs'-years over here!"

The giant man from the pub- Hagrid's big hairy face beamed over the sea of heads.

"C'mon, follow me - any more firs'-years? Mind yer step, now! Firs'-years follow me!"

Slipping and stumbling, they followed Hagrid down what seemed to be a steep, narrow path. It was so dark either side of them that Harry thought there must be thick trees there. Nobody spoke much. Neville, the boy who kept losing his toad, sniffed once or twice.

"Yeh'll get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec," Hagrid called over his shoulder, "jus' round this bend here."

There was a loud "Oooooh!".

The narrow path had opened suddenly onto the edge of a great black lake. Perched atop a high mountain on the other side, its windows sparkling in the starry sky, was a vast castle with many turrets and towers.

"No more'n four to a boat!" Hagrid called, pointing to a fleet of little boats sitting in the water by the shore. Harry was followed into his boat by Neville, Granger and a reluctant Weasley.

"Everyone in?" shouted Hagrid, who had a boat to himself, "Right then - FORWARD!"

And the fleet of little boats moved off all at once, gliding across the lake, which was as smooth as glass. Everyone was silent, staring up at the great castle overhead. It towered over them as they sailed nearer and nearer to the cliff on which it stood.

"Heads down!" yelled Hagrid as the first boats reached the cliff, they all bent their heads and the little boats carried them through a curtain of ivy which had hid a wide opening in the cliff face. They were carried along a dark tunnel, which seemed to be taking them right underneath the castle, until they reached a kind of underground harbour, where they clambered out onto rocks and pebbles.

"Oy, you there! Is this your toad?" said Hagrid, who was checking the boats as people climbed out of them.

"Trevor!" cried Neville blissfully, holding out his hands. Then they clambered up a passageway in the rock after Hagrid's lamp, coming out at the last onto smooth, damp grass right in the shadow of the castle.

They walked up a flight of stone steps and crowded around the huge, oak front door.

"Everyone here? You there, still got yer toad?"

Hagrid raised a gigantic fist and knocked three times on the castle door.

 **Hey doods! Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it! I'm hoping to update the fic again in a few days! But I'll guess we'll just have to wait and see. Stay alive frens |-/**


	12. Chapter 12

The door swung open at once. A tall, black haired witch in emerald-green robes stood there. She had a very stern face and Harry's first thought was that this was not someone to cross.

"The firs'-years, Professor McGonagall," said Hagrid.

"Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here."

She pulled the door wide. The Entrance Hall was so big you could have fitted the whole of the Dursleys' house in it. The stone walls were lit with flaming torches like the ones at Gringotts, the ceiling was too high to make out, and a magnificent marble staircase facing them led to the upper floors.

They followed Professor McGonagall across the flagged stone floor. Harry could hear the drone of hundred of voices from a doorway to the right - the rest of the school must already be here - but Professor McGonagall showed the First Years into a small empty chamber off the hall. They crowded in, standing rather closer together than they usually have done, peering about nervously.

"Welcome to Hogwarts." said Professor McGonagall. "The start-of-term banquet will be" shortly, but before"u take your seats in the Gre"Hall, you will be sorted into your Houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your House will something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your House, sleep in your House dormitory and spend your free time in your house common room. The four Houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Each House has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your House points, while any rule-breaking will lose House points. At the end of the year, the House with the most points is awarded the House Cup, a great honour. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever House becomes yours. The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting."

Her eyes lingered for a moment on Neville's cloak, which was fastened under his left ear, and on Ron's smudged nose. Harry nervously tried to flatten his hair, making sure that his scar was still covered.

"I shall return when we are ready for you," said Professor McGonagall. "Please wait quietly."

She left the chamber. Harry took deep breaths to force himself to stay calm.

"How exactly do they sort us into Houses?" he heard an unfamiliar voice ask.

"Some sort of test, I think. Fred said it hurts a lot, but I think he was joking."

Harry's heart gave a horrible jolt. A test? In front of the whole school? Just before he was about to panic he remembered what Professor Snape told him when he was informing Harry about the different House.

' _Based on personality traits. Gryffindor, brave, courageous, nerve and chivalry. Ravenclaw, intelligent, creative, learning and wit. Hufflepuff, hard working, patience, justice and loyalty. Slytherin, ambitious, leadership material, cunning and resourceful.'_ Harry reminded himself as he looked around the chamber and saw that everyone else looked terrified. No one was talking much except Granger, who was whispering very fast about all the spells she'd learnt and wondering which one she'd need.

He tried hard to ignore her as he looked over at the other people and stopped once his eyes rested on Neville, it looked like he was having trouble breathing because he was so panicked. Harry pushed himself through the other First Years as he made his way to Neville and put a hand on his shoulder when it seemed like he hadn't been noticed.

As soon as Harry's hand made contact with the other boy's shoulder, Neville jumped and his wide eyes shot up to meet Harry's. When he realised who it was he seemed to calm down a small amount but he was still breathing to fast.

"What's wrong?" Harry whispered so quietly that Neville was the only person to hear him.

"I-I-I'm rubbish at Magic! My Gr-Gran was s-s-sur-surprised when my H-Hogwarts letter came. E-e-everyone thought I had no M-magic. I-I'm scared that I'll fail and be s-sent h-home." Neville stuttered out between breath.

"Well guess what Neville?" Harry whispered, making sure he had the other boys attention before continuing. "I had a Professor take me for my school supplies and they told me we got Sorted based on personality traits, not Magic."

Neville looked down at Harry with wide eyes.

"Really?" asked Neville and Harry smiled while nodding his head. Neville's shoulders were completely relaxed now and his breathing had calmed down.

"Thanks Harry." whispered Neville as they both turned to face the door.

"No problem Neville."

Harry kept his eyes fixed on the door. Any second now, Professor McGonagall would come back and lead them to their Sortings.

Then something happened which made him jump about a foot in the air - several people behind him screamed.

"What the -?"

He gasped. So did the people around him. About twenty ghosts had just streamed through the back wall. Pearly-white and slightly transparent, they glided across the room talking to each other and hardly glancing at the First Years. He had read about the ghosts that occupied Hogwarts but he wasn't expecting to encounter them so soon. They seemed to be arguing. What looked like a fat little monk was saying, "Forgive and forget, I say, we ought to give him a second chance -"

"My dear Friar, haven't we given Peeves all the chances he deserves? He gives us all a bad name and you know, he's not really even a ghost - I say, what are you all doing here?"

A ghost wearing a ruff and tights had suddenly noticed the First Years.

Nobody answered.

"New student!" said the Fat Friar, smiling around at them. "About to be sorted, I suppose?"

A few people nodded mutely.

"Hope to see you in Hufflepuff!" said the Friar. "My old House, you know."

"Move along now," said a sharp voice. "The Sorting Ceremony's about to start."

Professor McGonagall had returned. One by one, the ghosts floated away through the opposite wall.

"Now, form a line," Professor McGonagall told the First Years, "and follow me."

Feeling oddly as though his legs had turned to lead, Harry got into line behind a boy with sandy hair, with Neville behind him, and they walked out of the chamber, back across the hall and through a pair of double doors into the Great Hall.

Harry had never even imagined such a strange and splendid place. It was lit by thousands and thousands of candles which were floating in mid-air over four long tables, where the rest of the students were sitting. These tables were laid with glittering golden plates and goblets. At the top of the Hall was another long table where the teachers were sitting. Professor McGonagall led the First Years up here, so that they came to a halt in a line face the other students, with the teachers behind them. The hundreds of faces staring back at them looked like pale lanterns in the flickering candlelight. Dotted here and there among the students, the ghosts shone misty silver. Mainly to avoid all the staring eyes, Harry looked upwards and saw a velvety back ceiling dotted with stars. He heard Granger whisper, "It's bewitched to look like the sky outside. I read about it in _**Hogwarts: A History**_ _._ "

He remembered reading about it In _**Hogwarts: A History**_ but his imagination had never came close to how magnificent it truly was. It was hard to believe there was a ceiling there at all, and that the Great Hall didn't simply open onto the heavens.

Harry quickly looked down again as Professor McGonagall silently placed a four-legged stool in front of the First Years. On top of the stool she put a pointed wizard's hat. This hat was patched and frayed and extremely dirty. Aunt Petunia wouldn't have let it in the house.

Everyone in the Hall was silently staring at the hat. For a few seconds, there was complete silence. Then the hat twitched. A rip near the brim opened wide like a mouth - and the hat began to sing.

" _Oh, you may not think I'm pretty,_

 _But don't judge on what you see,_

 _I'll eat myself if you can find_

 _A smarter hat than me,_

 _You can keep your bowlers black,_

 _Your top hats sleek and tall,_

 _For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat_

 _And I can cap them all,_

 _There's nothing hidden in your head_

 _The Sorting Hat can't see,_

 _So try me on and I will tell you_

 _Where you ought to be._

 _You might belong in Gryffindor,_

 _Where dwell the brave at heart,_

 _Their daring, nerve and chivalry_

 _Set Gryffindors apart;_

 _You might belong in Hufflepuff,_

 _Where they are just and loyal,_

 _Those patient Hufflepuffs are true_

 _And unafraid of toil;_

 _Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,_

 _If you've a ready mind,_

 _Where those of wit and learning,_

 _Will always find their kind;_

 _Or perhaps in Slytherin_

 _You'll make your real friends,_

 _Those cunning folk use any means_

 _To achieve their ends._

 _So put me on! Don't be afraid!_

 _And don't get in a flap!_

 _You're in safe hands (though I have none)_

 _For I'm a Thinking Cap!"_

The whole Hall burst into applause as the hat finished its song. It bowed it each of the four tables and then became quite still again.

"So we've just got to try on the hat!" Harry heard Ron whisper to someone. "I'll kill Fred, he was going on about wrestling a troll."

Harry smiled at that. He was beginning to think that the twins sounded like fun, especially if they tormented Ron. Just putting on the hat and waiting for it to say which House you belonged in didn't sound too bad but he did wish they could have tried it on without everyone watching, and from the way he could feel Neville shaking, he wished the same.

Professor McGonagall now stepped forward holding a long roll of parchment.

"When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be Sorted," she said causing his anxiety to rise. Everyone was going to know who he was! "Abbott, Hannah!"

A pink-face girl with blonde pigtails stumbled out of the line, put on the hat, which fell right down over her eyes, and sat down. A moment's pause -

"HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the hat.

The table on the right cheered and clapped as Hannah went to sit down at the Hufflepuff table. Harry saw the ghost of the Fat Friar waving merrily at her.

"Bones, Susan!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the hat again, and Susan scuttled off to sit next to Hannah.

"Boot, Terry!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

The table second from the left clapped this time; several Ravenclaws stood up to shake hands with Terry as he joined them.

"Brocklehurst, Mandy" went to Ravenclaw too, but "Brown, Lavender" became the first new Gryffindor and the table on the far left exploded with cheers, Harry could see the Weasley twins catcalling.

"Bulstrode, Millicent" then became a Slytherin, the first one of the night.

He was starting to feel definitely sick now. He remembered being picked for teams during sports lessons at his old school. He had always been last to be chosen, not because he was no good, but because no one wanted Dudley to think they liked him.

"Finch-Fletchley, Justin!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

Sometimes, Harry noticed, the hat shouted out the House at once, but at others it took a little while to decide. "Finnigan, Seamus," the sand-hairs boy next to Harry in the line, sat on the stool for almost a whole minute before the hat declared him a Gryffindor.

"Granger, Hermione!"

Granger almost ran to the stool and jammed the hat eagerly on her head.

"GRYFFINDOR!" shouted the hat. Harry was sure he heard Ron groan.

A horrible thought struck Harry, as horrible thoughts always do when you're very nervous. What if he wasn't chosen at all? What if he just sat there with the hat over his eyes for ages, until Professor McGonagall jerked it off his head and said there had obviously been a mistake and he'd better get back on the train? He could just imagine the reactions of his Aunt and Uncle, them telling his that he couldn't even be a freak the right way, that he messed everything up and that he was so useless that even the 'freaks' didn't want him.

When Neville was called, he fell over on his way to the stool. That hat took a long time to decide with Neville, and Harry could see his own worry about not being Sorted in his face. When it finally shouted "GRYFFINDOR," Neville ran off still wearing it, and had to jog back amid gales of laughter to give it to "MacDougal, Morag."

Malfoy swaggered forward when his name was called and got his wish at once: the hat had barely touched his head when it screamed, "SLYTHERIN!"

Malfoy went to join his friends Crabbe and Goyle, looking pleased with himself.

There weren't many people left now.

"Moon"... "Nott" … "Parkinson" … then a pair of twin girls, "Patil" and "Patil" … then "Perks, Sally-Anne" … and then, at last -

"Potter, Harry!"

As Harry stepped forward, whispers suddenly broke out like little hissing fires all over the Hall.

" _Potter,_ did she say?"

" _The_ Harry Potter?"

The last thing Harry saw before the hat dropped over his eyes was the Hall full of people craning to get a good look at him. Next second he was looking at the black inside of the hat. He waited.

"Hmm," said a small voice in his ear. "Difficult. Very difficult. Plenty of courage, I see. Not a bad mind, either. There's talent, oh my goodness, yes - and a nice thirst to prove yourself, now that's interesting… So where shall I put you? Oh I just adore the difficult Sortings, gives me a challenge. Now I don't think Gryffindor would be the right place for you, you're too cautious while Gryffindor's tend to act first and think later. Hmm and Hufflepuff you will cause you to feel suffocated instead of at peace, so that's not the House for you. Now that leaves Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Which would be best for you? You have the capacity to do well in Ravenclaw, no doubt about that, but I feel that you would not truly fit in there. Now that leaves Slytherin, that's the perfect fit, you've had to be cunning to survive the hand that you've been dealt in life. Good luck Mr Potter, I believe you will do many great things in

SLYTHERIN!"

Harry heard the hat shout the last word to the whole Hall. He felt his shoulders slump down in relief. He had been sorted and he wasn't going to be forced back to go on the train to the Dursley's! He took off the hat and walked shakily towards the Slytherin table. He was so relieved to have been Sorted, he hardly noticed the silence that had fallen over the Hall. However when he was half-way towards the table a commotion broke out, the Gryffindor table were booing and the Slytherin's were cheering. He sat down next to the boy he remembered to be called Nott.

He could see the High Table properly now. At the end farthest from him sat Hagrid, who was staring at Harry in shock, but when he caught his eye him gave him a shaky smile. And there, in the centre of the High Table, in a large gold chair, sat Albus Dumbledore. Harry recognised him at once from the card he'd got out of the Chocolate Frog on the train. Dumbledore's silver hair was the only thing in the whole Hall that shone as brightly as the ghosts. Harry then spotted Professor Snape, who was also staring at him with an unreadable look on his face, Harry threw a small smile towards the Professor, who then looked away.

And now there were only three people left to be Sorted. "Turpin, Lisa" became a Ravenclaw and then it was Ron's turn. He was pale green by now. Harry crossed his fingers under the table, hoping that he wouldn't somehow get into Slytherin, when a second later the hat had shouted, "GRYFFINDOR!"

Harry let out a sigh of relief as "Zabini, Blaise" made his way to the stool, where he was made this last Slytherin of the night.

Professor McGonagall rolled up her parchment and took the Sorting Hat away.

Harry looked down at his empty gold plate. He had only just realised how hungry he was. The sweets seemed like it had been ages ago and he hadn't eaten anything at all earlier that day since Uncle Vernon had said, "If they want you at the freakish school so badly

then can feed you, I'm not going to waste good food on you!"

Albus Dumbledore had got to his feet. He was beaming at the student, his arms opened wide, as if nothing could have pleased him

more than to see them all there.

"Welcome!" he said. "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here

they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you!"

He sat back down. Everyone clapped and cheered. Harry didn't know whether to laugh or not.

' _It seems like he's off his rocker! And this is the Headmaster of the school?!"_ Harry thought to himself.

Harry's mouth fell open when he turned back to face the table. The dishes in front of him were now piled with food. He had never

seen so many things he liked to eat, well more like sneak when the Dursley's weren't looking, on one table: roast beef, roast chicken,

pork chops and lamb chops, sausages, bacons and steak, boiled potatoes, roast potatoes, chips, Yorkshire pudding, peas, carrots,

gravy, ketchup and for some strange reason, mint humbugs.

After looking around and seeing everyone piling up their plates, Harry did the same, he put everything on his plate except the

humbugs and began to eat. It was all delicious.

Harry looked up from his plate and was surprised to see a ghost sitting there, with blank staring eyes, a gaunt face and robes stained

with silver blood. He was sitting right next to Malfoy who, Harry was pleased to see, didn't look too pleased with the seating

arrangements.

' _That must be the Bloody Baron.'_ Harry realised.

As though sensing his thought, the ghost turned his empty gaze towards Harry, and if Harry wasn't imagining there was a spark of

curiosity lit in his eyes.

Harry turned back to his food and was only able to eat a few more mouthfuls before he was unable to stomach anymore food unless

he wanted to throw it all up.

When everyone else had eaten as much as they could, the remains of the food faded from the plates, leaving them sparkling clean

as before. A moment later the puddings appeared. Blocks of ice-cream in every flavour you could think of, apple pies, treacle tarts, chocolate éclairs and jam doughnuts, trifle, strawberries, jelly, rice pudding...

Harry was nibbling on a few strawberries when he heard a quiet voice next to him.

"Hi, I'm Theo."

Harry turned to face the other boy next to him and saw a hand being held out to him.

"Hello, I'm Harry." He shook Nott's, Theo's, hand as he introduced himself.

Theo was a skinny boy with long limbs, he had dark hair and dark eyes.

"So what do you think of Hogwarts so far?" asked the other boy as he turned back to his vanilla ice-cream.

"It's…" Harry paused for a moment to try and think of the right words, "It's absolutely brilliant."

Harry and Theo chattered away to each other as they both finished their puddings.

Harry, who was starting to feel warm and sleepy, looked up at the High Table again. Hagrid was drinking deeply from his goblet.

Professor McGonagall was talking to Professor Dumbledore. Professor Snape was talking to another teacher with a ridiculous purple

turban on his head.

It happened very suddenly. Harry was observing the two Professors and a sharp, hot pain shot across the scar on Harry's forehead.

"Ouch!" Harry clapped a hand to his head.

"What's wrong?" asked Theo.

"N-nothing."

The pain had gone as quickly as it had come. It was difficult to shake off the pain, while he had many painful experiences over the

year, never had his scar caused his any pain that he could remember.

"Do you know who that teacher is that's talking to Professor Snape?" Harry asked Theo but it was an older student who was sitting

on the other side of him that answered.

"Oh, you already know Professor Snape? That's good, since he's your Head of House now. That's Professor Quirrell, he teaches Defence Against the Dark Arts. I'm Gemma Farley, by the way, I'm one of the Slytherin Prefects."

Harry watched Professor Quirrell for a while but he didn't experience any more pain.

At last, the puddings too disappeared and Professor Dumbledore got to his feet again. The Hall fell silent.

"Ahem - just a few more word now we are all fed and watered. I have a few start-of-term notices to give you. First Years should note

that the forest in the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. And a few of our older students would do well to remember that as well."

Professor Dumbledore's twinkling eyes flashed in the direction of the Weasley twins.

"I have also been asked by Mr Filch, the caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors. Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of term. Anyone Interested in playing for their House teams should contact Madam Hooch. And Finally, I must tell you that this year, the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death."

Harry laughed, but he was one of the few who did.

"He's not serious?" he muttered to Gemma.

"He must be," said Gemma, with an odd look on her face as she looked at the Headmaster. "It's strange though, normally he tells us

why we can't go somewhere. The forest for example - it's full of dangerous beasts, everyone knows that. And even if he didn't tell everyone he would usually tell us Prefects."

"And now, before we go to bed, let us sing the school song!" cried Professor Dumbledore. Harry notice that the other teachers' smiles had become rather fixed.

Professor Dumbledore gave his wand a little flick as if he was trying to get a fly off the end and a long golden ribbon flew out of it, which rose high above the tables and twisted itself snake-like into words.

"Everyone pick their favourite tine," said Professor Dumbledore, "and off we go!"

And the school bellowed:

" _Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts,_

 _Teach us something please,_

 _Whether we be old and bald_

 _Or young with scabby knees,_

 _Our head could do with filling_

 _With some interesting stuff,_

 _For now they're bare and full of air,_

 _Dead flies and bits of fluff,_

 _So teach us things worth knowing,_

 _Bring back what we've forgot,_

 _Just do your best, we'll do the rest,_

 _And learn until our brains all rot."_

Everybody finished the song at different times. At last, only the Weasley twins were left singing along to a very slow funeral march.

Professor Dumbledore conducted their last few lines with his wand, and when they had finished, he was one of those who clapped

loudest.

"Ah, music," he said, wiping his eyes. "A magic beyond all we do here! And now, bedtime. Off you trot!"

The Slytherin First Years followed Gemma through the chattering crowds, out of the Great Hall and up the marble staircase. Harry's

legs were like lead again, but only because he was so tired and full of food. He was too tired to even pay attention to the moving

people in the portraits along the corridors as they whispered and pointed as they passed. They were going down so many different stairs that he had lost count, Harry was just wondering how much further they had to go when they came to a sudden halt after walking down a long corridor for what seemed to be ages.

"This is the entrance to the Slytherin Common room." announced Gemma as she gestured to what appeared to be an empty wall.

" _ **Magicae purissimum.**_ "

As soon as the words left her mouth the wall swung open and revealed another corridor, which they then walked down until they finally reached the Slytherin Common room. It was a large room with plush green armchairs and couches. There was also a roaring fire with what seemed to be the Slytherin mascot plastered around the room.

After being instructed by Gemma, Harry sat down on one of the couches next to Theo.

"Now, normally Professor Snape would be here to give you your welcoming speech but this year he's otherwise occupied, so I'll be

giving it to you." Gemma started as soon as all the First Years were seated and settled. "Now I'm guessing that you all remember what McGonagall said about your Houses being like your family," she paused and everyone nodded their heads in reply. "that is true and especially for us Slytherins. Most of the students will say somethings about you being Dark and being evil, there's nothing we can do about that but we can stick together. I don't care what problems you have with each other, as soon as you leave the Common room any and all arguments will be forgotten and you will have each others backs because nobody else will."

Harry wasn't surprised to hear that the Slytherin House was hated, he had been hated all of his life, why would that change now? Plus he could remember the disgusted look on Ron's face as talked about the Slytherin House on the train.

After that Gemma directed the girls through one door to their dormitory and the boys through another. Harry was surprised to see a spiral staircase since they went down so many floors. When they reached the top of the staircase they found their beds at last: six four posters hung with deep emerald-green silk curtains. Their trunks had already been brought up. Too tired to talk much, they pulled on their pyjamas and fell into bed.

After everyone muttered a goodnight Harry fell asleep almost at once.

Perhaps Harry had eaten a bit too much, because he had a very strange dream. He was wearing Professor Quirrell's turban, which kept talking to him, telling him that he had been placed in the right House, that Slytherin was his destiny. Harry told the turban that he didn't know what it was talking about and he didn't care about destiny. It got heavier and heavier; he tried to pull it off but it tightened painfully - and there was Ron Weasley, laughing at him as he struggled with it, saying he was a slimy snake and he deserved it.

Weasley then turned into Professor Quirrell, whose laugh became high and cold - there was a burst of green light and Harry woke, sweating and shaking.

He rolled over and fell asleep again, and when he woke the next day, he didn't remember the dream at all.

 **Hey! Wow that's a long one but I really enjoyed writing it. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it! Stay alive frens |-/**


	13. Chapter 13

Harry was finding that it was very difficult to find your way around Hogwarts. There were a hundred and forty two staircases in total, none of two which were the same. There were wide, intimidating ones, ones that were so narrow you could barely use them that creaked in protest even under the smallest amount of weight, and staircases that had vanishing steps, so you have to remember where they are or fall. And the doors where another thing. Harry had heard of doors that would take you to different places depending on the day, doors that weren't doors at all but pieces of walls that had disguised itself, doors that you had to tickle in exactly the right place to open and apparently doors that wouldn't open unless you asked them politely! It was nearly impossible to remember where anything was, because it seemed like it was moving around. Harry was convinced that the castle was alive and moving around just to mess with its occupants. He had had the idea to try and remember the placement of the portraits but that plan failed when he realised that the portraits moved around to visit each other.

Harry and the other First Year Slytherins had been warned about Peeves the poltergeist. They had been told to avoid him whenever possible and if they were unable to, tell Peeves that they would get the Bloody Baron to deal with him.

They had also been told about the caretaker, Argus Filch, and his cat Mrs Norris. Gemma had said that Filch would use any excuse given to him to try and punish the students. And Mrs Norris would patrol the corridors alone, and as soon as she saw you break a rule she would run off for Filch, who would then appear a few moments later. Apparently Filch got around so quickly because the school had secret passageways. Harry wasn't surprised to learn of their existence since he was still convinced that the castle was sentient

From the moment he had woken up Harry had whispers about him. First from some of the other boys in the First Year dormitory, then again from older students in the common room, and then again as soon as he left the common room. But what was worst was the staring, the weight of other people eyes staring at him, judging him. He wasn't used to the feeling, when he was at the Dursley's the only attention he got there was when he was getting punished. They didn't even give him their full attention when they were giving him his chores.

Harry wished that everyone would ignore him, the way that it should be, as he was trying to concentrate on finding his way to his classes.

He was loving his lessons so far. Harry was pleased to find out that there was more to magic than waving your wand and saying some latin.

They had to learn the names of different constellations and their positions in the night skies through telescopes every Wednesday at midnight, and they also had to to study the movements of the planets. Another lesson they had was Herbology with Professor Sprout, three times a week they went out to the greenhouses behind the castle, where they learnt how to take care of all sorts of strange plants and fungi and finding out the uses of them. Harry was surprised by how much he enjoyed the class, when he read what Herbology was he worried that it was going to remind him of the Dursley's and the work that he had been forced to do out in the scorching sun while tending to Aunt Petunia's garden.

And it did, but in a good way. It reminded him of the time when he was able to get away from Dudley because Aunt Petunia didn't want him to distract Harry from the plants. It reminded him of the small amount of peace he was able to find at the Dursley's other than when he was locked in his cupboard.

However while Herbology was better expected, the same can't be said for History of Magic. He had thought that learning about all the wars in Magical history would be interesting, especially since it was going to be taught by a ghost, but no it turned out to be the most boring.

Another class that disappointed everyone was Defence against the Dark Arts, but it turned out to be a joke. The teacher, Professor Quirrell, couldn't get a single sentence out without stuttering which he didn't mind but he didn't seem to know what he was talking about. He had no confidence in what he was saying, unlike with Neville who if you got talking about Herbology couldn't seem to be quiet. Plus the whole classroom stunk of garlic, which everybody had said was to ward off a vampire he'd met in Romania and that Professor Quirrell was worried it was going to come after him. He also told them a ridiculous story about an African prince giving his turban as thanks for getting rid of a zombie, which Harry sincerely doubted he did. This belief was back by the fact that when another First Year asked for more details, Quirrell just changed to subject.

Charms seemed to be interesting from what he had seen so far. The teacher, Professor Flitwick, was a tiny little wizard who had to stand on a stack of books to see over his desk. The only downside of the class was during their first lesson, when the Professor took the register. When he said Harry's name he released an excited squeak and fell off of the books. Thankfully after the first time Professor Flitwick didn't treat Harry any differently from the other students.

Professor McGonagall was exactly like Harry had expected, strict and clever. She gave them a stern speech about misbehaving in her classroom the moment they sat down in her first lesson.

Everyone was excited for her class when she changed into a cat and then back to normal again. Everybody but Harry seemed disappointed when they realised that they wouldn't be learning anything that complex for years, if they ever did learn. He found everything they learned fascinating and enjoyed writing out the notes. For their first class they were then given a match and told to try and turn it into a needle. By the end of the class, only Granger and Harry had managed to make any difference to their needles. Harry had to admit that he enjoyed the look on Granger's face when she realised that Harry had not only made a difference but had actually managed to turn make more progress than her. Granger had only managed to change the colour and the sharpness, while Harry had managed to make his match into a silver needle with the wooden pattern.

Professor McGonagall had given both of them a smile before sending them back to their seats to pack their equipment away. Before Harry left the front of the classroom he was convinced he heard the Professor say something about him taking after his father, which had Harry beaming as he packed away his things.

He had even helped Theo and Neville with it as they left the classroom.

"I just don't understand what I did wrong," Theo had groaned. "I had the wand movements right and the pronunciation but I still couldn't get it to change!"

"Y-yeah, I-I-I th-thought it was j-just me." Neville had then muttered, as the three of them pushed their way through the crowds in the corridors.

"What were you thinking about?" Harry had asked and continued when he only received blank looks in return.

"You have to picture the match turning into a needle. You can't just think of the match then being a needle, you have to imagine the match transforming into the needle." He had explained.

This time they had stared at Harry with their chins on their chests.

Now it was time for the one lesson that Harry had seriously been looking forward to since the first time he had read the books. Potions. He liked the thought that you make could some seriously powerful magic without waving a wand. And he liked how it seemed like there was always something new to learn from what he had read.

He had heard groans from the other First Year Slytherins, except from him and Theo, when they learned that they shared the lesson with Gryffindors.

"At least it's Professor Snape, he won't favour the Gryffindors." Gemma said after a few First Years complained to her.

Harry had to agree, he had only been here a few days and he had already seen proof that everyone was favoured over the Slytherins. Most of the teacher's will only pick a Slytherin to answer a question if there was nobody else who knew, he had seen Slytherins get wrong if they got lost and were late to class while no other House got in trouble for the same thing.

Potions class were held in the dungeons. Harry still had trouble locating the classroom even though the Slytherin Common rooms where in the dungeons, they were like a maze and Harry doubted that he would even know all the secrets that the dungeons held.

After everyone was sitting down, Harry sitting between Neville and Theo, Professor Snape slammed the door open and stormed to the front of the classroom, with his robes swishing behind him. Once he had made his way toward the front of the classroom the Professor scanned the room with his empty, black eyes. He then picked up a piece of parchment and took the register. Harry was surprised when he stopped at his name.

"Ah, yes," he said softly, "Harry Potter. Our new - _celebrity_."

Harry heard sniggering from different parts of the room, from both Gryffindors and Slytherins alike. The Professor ignored it as he continued on with the register, and when he finished he looked up and peered at the class.

"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion-making," he began. He spoke in barely more than a whisper, but they caught every word - like Professor McGonagall, Snape had the ability to keep a class silent without effort. "As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses… I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death - if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."

Silence overcame the room as the speech finished. Harry kept his eyes on Professor Snape but he could see that Granger was sitting on the edge of her seat, obviously hoping to show off the fact that she could remember everything the textbook said.

"Now a little… test, to see who of you actually picked up their textbooks and studied." He said, pacing the front of the classroom before turning to face them abruptly. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to and infusion of wormwood?"

 _I remember reading this! It's actually quiet fascinating, I wonder how it works._ Harry pondered for a moment as he put his hand up in the air. He could see that Granger had also put her hand up in the air so quickly that she nearly lost her balance on her seat.

"The Draught of Living Death, sir." He answered. "It's a powerful sleeping draught that slows down all activity in the body until it seems like the person consuming it appears dead."

The look on Professor Snape was impassive, it was as though Harry was staring at an statue.

"Correct." Professor Snape drawled. "Now tell me Mr Potter, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?"

As soon as the questions left the Professor's mouth, Granger's hand was stretched so high in the air that Harry was vaguely concerned about her shoulder popping out of the joint. But that concerned was overshadowed by his annoyance at the fact that even though the Professor had chosen Harry to answer that question, she still had to try and prove that she knew everything.

"In the stomach of a goat, sir." He once again answered before extending his answer. "It's used to cure most common poisons, and it does that by absorbing the poison in the contents of the person's stomach."

"Well then Mr Potter, could you please tell me the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane?"

Harry didn't even hesitate before answering.

"They're both the same plant, sir, and they are also known by the name of aconite."

The Professor just stared at Harry for a moment before spinning around and making his way back to the front of the classroom.

"Well then," Professor Snape snapped as he spun around to face the students. "Why aren't you writing this down."

Everyone suddenly jumped for their quills and parchment, filling the room with the sound of the quills scratching against the parchment.

After that the Professor spelled the recipe for a potion to cure boils. It seemed to be a fairly simple and straightforward potion that Harry couldn't wait to start. The potions Professor put them all into pairs before he swept across the whole room, keeping a close eye on every student so he could notice any mistakes. Harry was luckily partnered with Theo instead of another Slytherin student.

Harry prepared all the ingredients as Theo stirred all of them together in the cauldron. Harry could feel the Professor's eyes on him as he crushed the snake fangs, and after hearing all the critique that all the other students bar Malfoy got, he wanted to get it perfect. He assumed he did since the Professor didn't have anything to say and he had noticed that if something was wrong the teacher would let you know.

Just as Harry was telling Theo to take the cauldron off the fire a cloud of acid green smoke and a loud hissing noise filled the classroom. Harry was shocked to see that Neville had somehow managed to melt his and Seamus's cauldron until it was unrecognisable. The potion was spreading across the stone floor of the classroom. Everybody was standing on their stools as soon as the noticed the potion that was seeping across the floors. Poor Neville was covered in the potion and moaning in pain as boils spread across his arms and legs.

"Idiot boy!" hissed Professor Snape, clearing the potion with a flick of his wand. "Finnigan! Take Longbottom to the Hospital Wing."

"I hope he's okay." Harry heard Theo mutter.

"You know how nervous he was for potions," Harry sighed, "It's just going to be worse now. Do you want to go and see him after class?"

Theo nodded his head and that was when the Professor began to talk.

"Now you have seen the effects that not following instructions, maybe you will all be more cautions from now on." Professor Snape drawled uncaringly.

Thankfully the rest of the lesson went without another mishap. Just as Harry was collecting his quill and parchment to put in his bag, he heard the teacher's voice.

"Mr Potter will you stay behind." He said, making it obvious that it wasn't a request.

"Ooh, Potter's in trouble." Harry heard Malfoy said under his breath in a sing song voice as he passed to make his way out of the door.

Harry ignored him as he shouldered his bag and nodded at Theo to go ahead and make his way to the Hospital Wing. He then made his way to the front of the classroom where the Professor was sitting behind his desk.

"I wanted to say that I was impressed by your work today, Mr Potter." The Professor said softly after everyone else had left the room.

Harry flushed from the praise, he had never been told that before and he wasn't sure what to do now.

"Oh, err, thank you, sir." Harry stuttered out eventually.

"I just didn't want anyone to think I was giving you special treatment because of who you are." Professor Snape explained, but Harry couldn't help but think that he wasn't being truthful.

"I understand, sir." Harry said, shifting from foot to foot, wanting to go and see how Neville was doing.

"That is all." The Professor waved a dismissive hand and Harry nodded before making his leave.

Just as he was about to shut the classroom door behind him, he heard the teacher's voice.

"Five points to Slytherin."

Harry couldn't wipe the smile off his face all the way up to the Hospital Wing.

 **Hi! I've been really enjoying writing this so hopefully I'll keep updating so often. Sorry there isn't really a set schedule but I write when I feel like it so sometimes it gets done quicker and sometimes slower. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it! Stay alive frens |-/ 3**


	14. Chapter 14

Harry had been looking for the Hospital Wing for over thirty minutes and he still wasn't any closer to finding it.

"I should have asked Theo to wait so we could have walked up together." sighed Harry.

He was currently standing in a long corridor with no doors and full of portraits. He had tried asked if any of them could point his towards the Hospital Wing but they all argued with each other and gave him a bunch of different directions, and he now didn't recognise anything around him.

Harry leaned against the wall and slide down until he was sitting on the cold, stone floor. He bent his legs and rested his arms on his raised knees, and then dropped his head against the wall before releasing a heavy sigh.

He just shut his eyes when he heard a voice.

"Oooh, what have I found? An ickle little Firstie all by himself." The voice cackled and when Harry turned to see who was talking he found a little man with wicked dark eyes and a wide mouth, floating around in the middle of the corridor. He couldn't be anyone other than Peeves, Harry had been lucky so far to not have encountered him but it seems like his luck has finally ran out.

"Go away Peeves." Harry muttered as he leaned his head back against the wall, hoping the poltergeist was like a bully and would go away when they didn't get a reaction.

Unfortunately he didn't.

"Is the ickle little Firstie lost?" Peeves crooned, sounding delighted at the fact.

"Hey Peeves!" Harry heard a voice shout.

It was the Weasley twins. They both walked over next to Harry, one of them grabbed his arm and pulled him so that he was standing. He was now standing between the both of them.

"This Firstie is a friend of ours." the twin on the right said as the one on the left wrapped his arm around Harry's shoulder.

"Oh alright." the poltergeist pouted before zooming down the corridor, cackling away.

"Why did you help me? It's not like I'm friends with you or any of your brothers." asked Harry, confused at the turn of events.

The twins shared a look for a moment before the one on the right grasped at his chest and the one on the right leaned heavily against Harry, both of them groaning as though in pain.

"Oh it hurts Forge." Sniffed the twin on the right.

"I know Gred, this must be what heartbreak feels like." Groaned 'Forge'.

"Our favourite First Year isn't our friend." 'Gred' sobbed, dropping to his knees and burying his face in his hands.

Harry wasn't able to hold a smile back at the sight of the twins theatrics. They both grinned when they saw the smile.

"So why is ickle Harry down here all alone." 'Gred' asked.

"Neville got hurt in potions and I was going to the Hospital Wing to see him but I got lost." sighed Harry, looking up at both of the twins.

"We shall-" exclaimed 'Forge'.

"Escort you-" continued 'Gred'.

"To the Hospital Wing." The both exclaimed at the same time.

"Thank you." smiled Harry.

The twins guided him down the corridor and climbed up over ten staircases. The journey up to the Hospital Wing was filled with jokes and laughter.

"Well here we are." The twin Harry now knew was Fred said, as the stood outside of huge of wooden, double doors.

"Thank you, again." Harry said, grinning at the red heads.

"No problemo, ickle little Firstie." George grinning before reaching out and ruffling Harry's hair.

Harry just rolled his eyes before trying to straighten his hair out as much as possible, so that it at least covered his scar.

Harry grabbed the door handle and pushed open the heavy door to reveal the Hospital Wings. The Hospital Wing was a large, stark white room filled with hospital beds, which were surrounded by curtains, at the very back of the room was a doorway which probably lead the an office and there was a desk next to it.

Neville was sitting in the bed closest to the door, and sitting next to the bed was Theo. They looked to be in a deep discussion and when Harry got close enough he could hear that they were discussing the properties of a plant that Harry had never heard of before. He was happy to hear that Neville was comfortable enough to talk without stuttering, in fact he looked happy and sounded enthusiastic.

"Mr Potter why are you here? Are you injured?" a woman's voice asked, Harry turned to see her coming out of the office carrying something.

At hearing his name both Neville and Theo turned to face him. Harry nearly winced at the sight of the painful boils that were still covering his skin.

"I'm fine, I'm just to see how Neville is." Harry replied, smiling up at the woman.

The nurse just nodded before walking over to Neville's bed and handing his a glass vial filled with a thick green liquid.

"Drink this and I'll be back to check on you in a few minutes and if I find you healthy enough, you are free to leave."

"Thank you Madam Pomfrey." said Neville.

She nodded her head with a smile before spinning around and rushing back to her office.

Harry walked over to the bed and watched as Neville drank the liquid from the vial. As soon as it hit his tongue he pulled a face.

"It took you awhile to get here. Did Professor Snape keep you there the whole time?" Theo asked, shuffling along in the chair so that Harry could squeeze in next to him.

"No. I got lost and then Peeves turned up." answered Harry, squashing himself as close to the arm of the chair as possible so that he wasn't touching Theo.

"Peeves?" Neville gasped. "What did he do?"

"Nothing. Fred and George Weasley turned up and told him that we were friends, so he left me alone." explained Harry, still confused about why they did that.

"You got lucky!" Neville exclaimed, before explaining how the Gryffindor's had encountered Peeves on their first night and how their Prefect, Percy, had to threaten Peeves with The Bloody Baron before he would leave them alone.

As Neville was talking Harry watched as all of his boils slowly disappeared, one by one and by the time he was finished talking they had all gone.

 **'** ** _Magic is really amazing.'_** **marveled Harry, watching as Madam Pomfrey walked over and said that Neville was free to leave.**

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 **Hey! Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed! I know it's not as long as the last few chapters but I've had to go to the A &E yesterday and I really wanted it putting up today!**


	15. Chapter 15

**Severus Snape POV**

Ever since Severus had escorted Harry Potter to Diagon Alley his life had been chaotic. First there was having to make sure that he all of his lesson planned out and organised, then there was brewing all the potions for the Hospital Wing.

He also had to come up with an idea to how to protect the stone and then set it up. He decided to use a logic puzzle since it seemed like no one in the castle had one iota of common sense; placing such a valuable and dangerous artefact around children, just what was Albus thinking? And that so called protections. They were pathetic. Pomona's 'protection' was something that First Years were taught! Severus is disgusted that the only protection worth anything is Quirrell's and that isn't by much, the only reason it's worth anything is because it's not very likely that a First Year student could very well take down a Mountain Troll by themselves.

Then the small amount of peace he found in brewing and experimenting with his potions was disturbed by the inevitable arrival of the students, bringing with them noise that overflowed through the corridors and the silly pranks that would soon be pulled, most likely by the Weasley twins.

The Sorting was going along as normal, nothing unusual or shocking happening until the name Harry Potter was called. He should have know that Harry Potter would ruin the peaceful Sorting.

Even though he had met Potter, he was still expecting him to be placed in Gryffindor just like both of his parents. So as he sat there watching as Potter walked up to the stool about to be Sorted, he was gobsmacked when he heard the Hat shout "Slytherin" to the silent Hall.

Severus was surprised to see that it looked like Potter was relieved when he was Sorted into Slytherin. He had half expected the boy to turn around and demand to be re-Sorted so to see such an easy acceptance of his new House was somewhat jarring. And then once the boy was sitting down at his table he turned to face the Head Table and when he saw Severus he even smiled!

Thankfully Severus had time to compose himself before he saw Potter, as he had Miss Farley give the start of year speech to the First Years as he and the other Professor's were making one last check on the Stone.

Severus was once again surprised by Potter during his first Potions class. He targeted him with questions that he never expected Potter to know the answers to, not wanting to become target to him own questions that would happen about his loyalty to the Dark Lord if he showed even the slightest inclination of anything but contempt for the boy.

He couldn't help the smallest amount of admiration that he felt for the boy when he managed to not only answer the questions, but also gave additional information. He had obviously studied ahead, and that was one thing that was reminding him more and more of Lily.

Another aspect of his personality that reminds him of Lily is Potter's kindness for the people he cares about. When Severus heard him talking after Longbottom had been sent to the Hospital Wing he had expected him to be taunting him, just like his father would have done. But no, all he heard was concern about his wellbeing and even how it would effect Longbottom's future performance in Potions.

It seems that the boy never does what is expected of him.

And that's what Severus is learning once again, hearing the other Professor's talk about their new students.

"Miss Granger is a brilliant witch." Gloated Professor McGonagall, "She actually listens in class and is always the first to put her hand up to answer questions."

The rest of the Professor's nodded along with smiles on their faces, except for Severus and he was surprised to see that Pomona was frowning.

"But she also doesn't know when not to answer." She retorted, "When I asked Mr Finch-Fletchley to answer the question, Miss Granger just blurted the answer out without giving him a chance to answer. If she continues doing this then she is going to disrupt the other students learning."

"I have to agree." drawled Severus, shocking everyone by speaking up. Usually during these meetings he just stays silent until he's asked questions. "When I asked a specific student some questions, her hand shot up into the air before even giving the student a chance of answering. And if what Pomona said is true then she's causing students to lose an opportunity to build their confidence by stealing their chance to answer correctly."

"May I ask who you were asking to answer the questions?" Albus asked, obviously trying to change the subject.

"Mr Potter." Severus said shortly.

"And how did he do with your questions?" Albus smiled, his damn eyes twinkling.

"His answers were surprisingly acceptable." sniffed Severus.

"That's high praise coming from you Severus." noted Minerva. "Young Mr Potter also seems to have inherited his father's talent for Transfiguration. Miss Granger and him were the only students to make any change to their matches, he managed to turn it into a needle with the pattern of wood. It was impressive."

"Oh yes he is most impressive!" exclaimed Filius. "He seems to have an interest for Charms just like his mother!"

"He's such a polite boy. Mr Longbottom and him are two of my best students, they both seem to be at peace when they're around the plants." Pomona added.

"How is Mr Potter settling into Slytherin Severus?" enquired Albus, with a pleasant smile on his face.

"From what I've seen he seems to be doing okay. He has made a friend in both Mr Nott and Mr Longbottom, so he's not alone." Severus answered.

The fact that Potter had overlooked the difference in House to be friends with Longbottom was another thing that reminded Severus of Lily.

"Well it seems like he is settling in very nicely." Albus smiled clasping his hands together.

Soon after that everyone began to leave for their private quarters. When Severus arrived back at his rooms he sat down on his cushioned seat and called for a House Elf to give him a glass of Firewhiskey and thought about the last month of his life.

' _I feel like life is going to get a lot more hectic now that Potter's back.'_ Severus contemplated as he watched the glow of the fire shine through the alcohol.

He gulped down the drink.

 _'Definitely going to be hectic.'_ Severus mourned the loss of his peace before calling for another glass of Firewhiskey.

"Well at least it'll never be boring." muttered Severus before downing his second drink and picking up a book to read.

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 **Hey! Finally another Snape chapter so we can see what he's been thinking! The updates might slow down because I'm fixing the rubbish that is Surviving Slytherins because wow I'm actually embarrassed reading it! Anyway thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it.**

 **Hope you comment because they literally give me life.**

 **HeavyDirtySoulIsHoldingOnToYou Out!**


	16. Chapter 16

**Albus Dumbledore**

Albus sat in his office, contemplating how to get his plan back on track. Young Harry Potter wasn't like anything he had expect. When he placed him with the Dursley's he had thought that it would make the boy pliant to his plans. The treatment from the Dursley's should have also made his search for praise from an adult at even the risk of his own safety.

Oh and what great plans they had been, first he had hired Quirrell as the Professor for Defence Against the Dark Arts and then he had brought the Philosopher's Stone into the castle under the guise of protection so that it would be too tempting for Quirrell and Voldemort. He had known the moment he had seen Quirrell after his little trip that something Dark was lingering around him and at first he had thought that it was left over magic from his travel, but then it didn't leave in fact the Darkness was growing stronger by the day until it was strong enough for Albus to recognise the magical signature as Voldemort. He had been shocked at first, he had known that Voldemort would someday return but he never expected him to find a way so soon.

That was when he knew that he would have to start Harry on the right track of sacrificing himself for the great good a few years earlier than expected.

The plan was perfect. First Quirrell would search for a way to get to the Stone and then he would leave little clues and provide the boy with his father's invisibility cloak and leave all the rest to Harry. It would all go to further the boys instincts to protect others and nurture his self sacrificing attitude.

He had even provided the perfect villain in the form of Severus; a bitter and hateful man who would hate Harry on principle because he represents that fact that the love of his life had a child with his childhood tormentor.

But that plan had gone down the drain as soon as the boy was Sorted into Slytherin. Now that he thought about it, maybe it was going down hill before the boy was even Sorted. He had thought that by pushing the Weasley's in Harry's direction on the muggle platform that it would cause the youngest boy, Ronald, to bond with Harry, but from what he had seen it seemed that the boys hated each other.

Instead of the two of them walking into the Hall talking like lifelong friends, the two of them had been as far from each other as they could get and that Harry was talking to the young Longbottom boy. Albus had still been optimistic, the Longbottom family had been know as a Light Pureblood family and had been since they had been around.

But then Potter had been Sorted into Slytherin of all places!

' _It's not going to be as easy as anticipated…'_ Albus sighed to himself. ' _I'll carry on with the original plan but keep a close eye on the boy and try to guide him to the right path. Plus the Stone is already here and so is Quirrell and Voldemort.'_

Albus was peering out of his window that looked out over the Forbidden Forest when he heard a high pitched trill from the corner of his office. He turned his gaze to the source of the sound to find Fawkes standing there on his perch, staring at him with deep disapproval.

"Fawkes." Albus sighed tiredly as he gazed at him old companion. "It is what must be done. For the greater good of the Wizarding World."

Albus then turned away from the Phoenix and started on the paperwork that was beginning to pile up on his desk.

' _Doing what we must will not always be pretty but it had to be done.'_ Albus reassured himself as he ignored the heavy gaze that was resting on him.

 _'_ _Some sacrifice will be necessary but it will be worth it in the end.'_

 **Harry Potter**

Harry was laying in his bed after his first week of Hogwarts was finished. He was still half convinced that everything was a dream. He had made some friends in Neville and Theo, he was doing well in all his classes so far and he was away from the Dursley for most of the year.

The only downside to Hogwarts was a few of the people. Granger was getting more annoying as the week went on and the same with Weasley.

Weasley had been glaring at him every opportunity available, and it the past few days he had been making snide comments, like;

"Here comes a snake watch out!"

"Oh looks it the new Dark Lord in training."

The second one had really gotten to him. Since he had realised how much Gryffindors hated Slytherins Harry had been wondering what his parents would think of him being Sorted into Slytherin, into the same House as their murderer. But then he looks around himself and he sees the First Year girls talking and giggling, the upper Years studying and helping younger students with their homework. That made him realise that they were just people, just because they were Sorted into Slytherin doesn't mean that they believe the same things that Voldemort did.

' _The House doesn't make the person, the person makes the House.'_ Harry thought to himself as he looked at the top of his canopy and listening to the snoring of the other boys in his dorm room.

' _And I'm going to change everybody's mind about Slytherin.'_

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 **Hi! Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it! I know it's a little shorter than normal but I'm still trying to update/ rewrite Surviving Slytherin so it's unfortunately going to be a bit slower. I am thinking of trying to write a few chapters before updating but I'm not too sure I like doing that. And over the next month the updates might slow down further because I have lots of Hospital appointments and one of them is for surgery so please be patient. Stay Alive Frens |-/**

 **HeavyDirtySoulIsHoldingOnToYou out!**


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17**

 **Harry Potter POV**

Harry made his way down to the Great Hall for breakfast with on Saturday morning, talking to Theo about Transfiguration because the other Slytherin wanted more information about whether visualising the transformation actually helped or if it was just something that helped focus during.

While walking through the doors of the Great Hall and making their way towards the Slytherin table Harry noticed all the whispering that was happening at every single table.

"What's going on?" Harry asked Gemma as he and Theo sat down. "What's got everyone whispering now?"

"Haven't you heard?" She asked before continuing without waiting for an reply. "Someone broke into Gringotts."

Gemma then reached over for a newspaper that was laying down on the table in front of her and handed it over to both of them. On the front of the newspaper which was called the _Daily Prophet,_ there was a picture of the front entrance Gringotts with a Goblin standing in front of the intimidating doors between the guards. Harry then looked down at the article heading and read on.

 _ **GRINGOTTS BREAK-IN LATEST**_

 _ **Investigations continue into the break-in at Gringotts on 31 July, widely believed to be the work of Dark wizards or witches unknown.**_

 _ **Gringotts' goblins today insisted that nothing had been taken. The vault that was searched had in fact been emptied the same day.**_

' _ **But we're not telling you what was in there, so keep your noses out if you know what's good for you,' said a Gringotts spokesgoblin this afternoon.**_

"Why has a break-in gotten everyone gossiping?" asked Harry after he finished reading the article.

Theo answered the question absentmindedly as he re-read the article for the second time.

"Gringotts is near impossible to break-in to and to do it without being caught is unheard of." He explained.

"There's going to be lots of people complaining about it as well since a lot of people keep items in their vaults that are way more valuable than money, like old artifacts." input Gemma as began to place some toast and scrambled eggs on a plate, which she then placed in front of Harry.

Harry sheepishly took a bite of toast when Gemma gave him a stern look, as soon as she saw he was eating she turned back to her own breakfast with a smile.

"Whoever did it must be extremely powerful to be able to get through the Goblins enchantments(?)." mused Theo before taking a bite out of a crumpet,

Harry looked over his shoulder to look at all the other table and noticed that the Gryffindors seemed even more wild than what was normal for them.

"The Lions probably think that they can figure out who it was who did it and then claim glory." Harry scoffed rolling his eyes before turning back around to face his plate and digging into the food.

Harry was nearly finished with his breakfast when an idea came into mind and he paused with the fork halfway towards his mouth.

' _This could be my chance. I wanted to change everybody's mind about Slytherins. Sure it won't be easy and it won't convince everyone, but it might change the mind of a few people and that would be progress.'_ Harry thought to himself as he slowly lowered his fork down to his plate and began to try and think of ways that he could figure everything out.

The next few weeks were full of Harry trying and failing to come up with a plan to find out how someone could break into Gringotts. He had tried to do some research into Goblins and how their magic differed from Wizarding magic but he was disappointed to find out there was little to no information concerning Goblins other than what was mentioned in their History of Magic text books. It was now Hallowe'en and he still didn't know anymore than he did at the beginning of his search for information.

He hadn't told Neville or Theo about his plan but he could tell that they were getting suspicious when they had seen what books he was reading. He had told them that he was just reading up on them to find out more about them for History of Magic, claiming that he felt like he didn't know the basics since he wasn't raised in the Magical world and it had convinced Neville but Harry could tell that Theo wasn't as convinced that he was telling them the truth.

Harry had been dragged from the library by both Neville and Theo to the Great Hall where there was a feast being held in honour of Hallowe'en. They separated to their different tables for the speeches but as soon as Professor Dumbledore announced that it was time for everyone to eat, the Gryffindor came and sat with the two Slytherins.

At first Nev had been cowering at the weight of all the eyes on his from both the Gryffindor and Slytherin tables but he was soon distracted by Theo and Harry as they talked about their last Herbology lesson, and it wasn't long before the three of them were digging into their food and laughing.

A sudden hush overcame as the doors to the Great Hall slammed open and in ran Professor Quirrell. Professor Dumbledore and the other teachers shot up from their chairs.

"Th-there's a tr-troll i-in t-the D-dungeons!" he exclaimed after he ran between the table to get the the Head Table. "Th-thought you o-ought to kn-know." He said before he then collapsed down on to the stone floor.

Then madness erupted in the Great Hall.

 **Hi! Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed it! I know it's been quite a while since I updated but there was so much going on and I really appreciated everyone who is still reading this even though its not got a consistent updating schedule.**

 **~HeavyDirtySoulIsHoldingOnToYou out!~**


	18. Chapter 18

**Harry Potter**

Harry's ears were assaulted by the screams that filled the Great Hall, not just coming from the younger years, he noticed as he scanned the Hall.

His eyes however soon locked back onto both of his friends. Theo was one of the few people who wasn't screaming and his face was composed but Harry could see the fear in his eyes that he couldn't hide away, probably trying to stay calm for Neville, who Harry could see looked frozen with fear. From what little Harry had heard about Trolls from the few meagre times they were mentioned in History of Magic, he wasn't surprised that everybody was so afraid.

However, before he could become overwhelmed by the racket that was being produced by almost every single student the Headmaster interrupted the chaos.

"Silence!" Professor Dumbledore's voice echoed throughout the Hall and caused an instant silence to fall over everyone.

All eyes were fixed on the Headmaster, eyes almost pleading with him to tell them what to do and for him to fix everything and save the day, like some sort of hero.

"Everyone leave the Hall and make their way towards your dormitories in an orderly fashion and listen to what your Prefects tell you." Professor Dumbledore boomed and everyone but Slytherin and Hufflepuff rushed to stand up.

' _Is it he serious?'_ Harry thought to himself, incredulous. _'Is he really telling us to head right to the place where the Troll was last spotted?'_

The Slytherin and Hufflepuffs obviously had the same thoughts as him as he could see them standing still, just staring at the Headmaster in shock.

Gemma seemed to be the first person to overcome her shock as she called out to the Headmaster over the noise of the other students.

"We can't go to our dormitories! The troll is down there!"

The Headmasters expression flicker but it returned to its usual placid expression before Harry could even think about trying to figure out what was going inside the bonkers man's head.

"Hufflepuff and Slytherin remain where you are." Professor Dumbledore said in return before sliding out a door at the back of the Hall that Harry hadn't noticed before, while the rest of the Professor's followed him out, except for Quirrell who was still laying on the floor unconscious and Professor Snape.

Harry looked around to see if he could spot his Head of House but he was unsuccessful in his attempts. He was soon distracted by the racket made by the Gryffindors and Ravenclaws rushed to leave.

The Slytherins and Hufflepuffs watched as their schoolmates were herded out of the Great Hall by their respective Prefects.

A silence had once again overcome the Hall but it was soon broken by the sound of an upper Slytherin slamming his hands down on the table and standing up.

"He tells the other students to leave and go to their dormitories because it isn't safe enough for them, yet he tells us to sit here. He's positively crazy!" He heard one of the upper years exclaim to Gemma.

One of the Hufflepuff Prefects had been standing by the Slytherin table unnoticed before he opened his mouth.

"He must have a reason!" The Hufflepuff said defensively. "He had to have. He wouldn't leave us here with no reason, and-"

"Well we all know why he left us here don't we." interrupted Flint. "He sees us as expendable, Slytherin are all evil and Hufflepuff is useless." He scoffed before scowling down at the table.

Harry wished that he could disagree but everything that he had seen had proven that fact over and over again. As he looked around the tables, he could see that none of the other students had a reply either.

' _People here are so closed minded. They wonder why Slytherin followed Voldemort, well it's not like they were going to gain anything by not following him. They would have still be hated by everyone just because they were in the same House.'_ Harry sighed, shaking his head at in disgust.

 _'_ _The man makes the House, not the other way around.'_

"Where's Quirrell gone?" Gemma blurted out.

Everyone left in the Hall turned their heads simultaneously towards the middle of the Hall in between the Hufflepuff and Slytherin tables where the Defence Against The Dark Arts Professor had been previously laying.

It was silent for a moment as all the students stared at the same spot before a Hufflepuff that Harry didn't know the name of spoke up.

"Maybe… Maybe one of the other Professors moved him?" He stammered out nervously.

"None of the Professors moved him." proclaimed Adrian Pucey. "None of them even looked his way after he collapsed."

"Well, then what happened to him then?" Harry asked, wanting to know the answer as much as everyone else.

Everyone sat down, one by one, staring at the middle of the Great Hall in silence.

 **Snape**

Chaos had overtaken the Great Hall, nearly all the students were screaming and the ones that weren't looked to be paralysed with fear. Severus was relieved to see that the other Professors seemed to be composed for the most part, but he could still see the fear that was lingering in their eyes that was being hidden for the sake of the students.

Severus saw Albus raise a wand towards his throat and cast a spell before the sound of his voice boomed across the Hall and brought everyone's attention to him.

"Silence!" Albus shouted.

' _How did a troll even manage to get inside?'_ He wondered to himself as blocked out what Albus what saying to the students. ' _Trolls don't have the intelligence to find their own way here, so that means that they had to be let in by someone. But why would someone…'_

' _The Stone.'_ he realised and when he looked around the Great Hall to see everyone occupied with Albus he slunk from his chair and out a door behind the Head Table.

' _Why did he chose now of all time to make a move? Hallowe'en is a terrible day'_ Severus sighed as he rushed up to the third-floor corridor.

' _I just hope that I'm not too late.'_

Severus took a deep breath and raised his hand to the door handle.

 ***Peeks around corner* Hi, so yeah I'm still alive. Just had so much going on with life, like seriously go back to being boring, and the few times I had free I was drawing BTS... Oops. But anyway I'm gonna try to write a few chapters before I next update. Thank you for reading this and I really hope that you enjoyed it!**

 **~ HeavyDirtySoulIsHoldingOnToYou out!**

 **(If anyone is interested in seeing my drawings I post them on Insta under xthismyshiteux)**


	19. Chapter 19

**S. Snape**

Severus flicked his wand with a whispered "Alohomora" and scoffed as the door easily opened with such a basic and easy spell.

'It's almost like Albus wants somebody to try and steal the stone.' Severus shook his head with a pained sigh before grasping the door handle and pushing the door forward.

The first sound that reached Severus' ears was the door creaking at its hinges, but he barely even noticed it when he set his gaze upon what dwelled within the corridor. Instead of it being empty as he expected there lay an humongous beast. The size of it filled the whole corridor from the floor right to the ceiling but what had to be the most shocking fact of all was that it possessed three heads.

'A Cerberus.' Severus realised faintly, 'Albus has lost his mind to have this creature in a school.'

Severus closed the door and pushed his back against it as he attempted to think of a solution, cursing himself as he failed.

He stayed as still as humanly possible, attempting to not aggravate the situation. Severus stared up at the six eyes that were gazing back at him, after a few tense moments the Cerberus slowly lowered its three heads down while not removing it's eyes from his still figure. Soon the Cerberus closed its eyes with a sigh and seemingly fell asleep. He looked around the chamber to see the room filled with clutter which was all covered in dust before bracing himself.

He barely dared to breath as he inched his way towards the trap drop which was right next to where one of the Cerberus' paws lay. Severus sighed in relief when he had made it to the trap door with no sign of disturbing the resting Cerberus. He knelt down next to the trap door and brushed off the dust that was disguising the handle. The man was just about to reach to open it when he froze at the feeling of something wet and warm landing on his shoulder.

Severus turned his head at the sound of growling reverberating through the chamber. The sight of six eyes and three pairs of bared teeth bearing down on him, and that was the last thing he saw before being slammed in a wall. He pushed himself up as quickly as he could and tried to find his bearings before rushing out lf the chamber, he felt a sharp pain as something latched on to his leg. He blindly fired a spell back towards the Cerberus and leapt for the door as soon as he was free from the grasp of the Cerberus.

Severus spun around and locked the door before leaning against it. His head thudded against the door as he released a sigh of relief which trailed off as a hiss of pain as he shifted his leg.

'Shit! How am i supposed to check up on the Stone now?' Severus took a long, calming breath before thinking about the situation clearly. 'There's no way that anyone managed to get passed that beast yet, nothing in the room looked to be disturbed. The trap door looked like it hadn't been touched since the Stone was placed in Albus' care.'

Severus slowly lowered himself to sit on the ground before he leaned forward and gingerly touched his leg, before clenching his eyes shut as a sharp pain shot through his leg. Severus pulled his hand away from his leg and grimaced at the sight of blood now covering his hand, he removed a handkerchief from the inner pocket of his robes.

He wiped the blood covering his hand and Snape then slowly rolled up his trouser leg carefully, trying to cause himself the least amount of pain possible. He pressed his lips into a straight line at the sight of the mangled flesh of his thigh, the man then mopped as much of the blood as he could and sighing when the blood was just replaced by more. He sighed in frustration when he realised that he didn't have enough time to heal his wound before pointing his wand at the handkerchief and enlarging the fabric.

Severus maneuvered his leg and place the handkerchief so that it was laying below his thigh, he grabbed both ends of the fabrit and taking a bracing breath before he tied to ends together to stop as much of the blood flow as he could. He gritted his teeth against the pain before making sure that it was securely in place before rolling his trouser leg down.

Severus propped himself up against the wall and slowly limping down the corridor to make his way down to the Great Hall to check on the students

 _Hi... Yeah I'm alive, I've just been really unmotivated to write lately, plus I'll be honest I have no idea what to write. When I started this I was kinda stupid and didn't have a plan, I just wrote and hoped for the best. So I thought the best plan was to ask you, as people who habe read the fanfiction, do you think I should continue or should I just give up?_

 _ANYWAY thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it! Please let me know your thoughts._

 _HDSHOTY out!_


	20. Chapter 20

Hi! I just wanted to say that i am going to be continuing The Letter but I won't be starting the new chapter for a few weeks because I'm gonna be studying for my exams which are quickly approaching! Thank you to the people who commented I really appreciated it, it really encouraged me to continue! I hope i just don't disappoint anyone...

Anyway hope you can be patient till after my exams!

HeavyDirtySoulIsHoldingOnToYou out!


	21. Chapter 21

Severus Snape

Severus limped down the corridor, putting as little weight as he could onto his injured leg as every little bit of pressure on it sent a sharp stabbing pain up the whole of his leg. He slowly made his way down towards the Great Hall to check on the wellbeing of the students that had to remain in the hall.

He was merely one corridor away from his destination when he heard the sharp sound of heeled shoes rushing through the corridors in his direction.

"Severus!"

At the sound of his name Severus stopped in his place and carefully spun around to be greeted by the sight of Minerva rushing towards him.

"Is there a problem Minerva?" He queried as the transfiguration professor neared him.

"The other Professors and I have searched the whole of the dungeons and we believe that the Troll is no longer there." Minerva explained, her face creased with worry.

'That is if the troll was even there to begin with.' Severus mused to himself before his thoughts were interrupted by the Gryffindor Head of House continuing to talk.

"That is not all, I have just been informed by one of my prefects, Mister Weasley, that one of the Gryffindor students is missing."

"Well let's go search for them and hope that we discover them before the troll does." Severus drawled out before spinning on his heel and storming down towards the Great Hall as fast as his injury would allow him, taking care to keep the limp out of his gait, hearing the clicking sound of the Transfiguration Professor shoes as she hurries to match his step.

"Do you know which student it is that we are searching for Minerva?" Severus queried before an overpowering stench had him pause in his step.

"Miss Granger, apparently she was not…" Minerva's explanation trailed off as her nose scrunched up in disgust.

"Well it seems that we have located the troll." Noted Severus.

The two of them made to follow the stench, before they heard the sound of something being smashed. Severus felt his blood run cold when his ears registered the panicked screaming of who he assumed was Miss Granger.

Minerva rushed passed him as he hurried as fast as he could, ignoring the pain and the fresh blood he could feel seeping through his makeshift bandage, causing his trousers to stick to his leg.

When he caught up to Minerva, she had her wand out and pointed at the troll. He couldn't help the sneer that crossed his features when he finally caught sight of the creature. It was at least 10 feet tall, its lumpy skin was a dull, drab grey. The trolls small bald head was perched on top of a boulder like body. Encased in its strong grip with a wooden club, which was currently above its head as it took aim for another hit.

The sight of the troll lowering its arm to swing at the First Year had brought Minerva out of her stupor.

"Altum somnum." intoned the Transfiguration Professor.

Severus watched wearily as the deep blue colour of the spell hit the troll and took its grip, its eyes slowly lowering and its movements became sluggish. Its arms slowly moved from over its head to lay by its side and the wooden club let out a loud clunk as it fell from the creatures loose grip. The troll teetered on its feet before it heavily sat down on the floor, and its stores filled the silence that had fallen over the bathroom.

Now that the imminent danger had passed Severus took a moment to asses the damage that had been inflicted on the bathroom, as Minerva rushed over to check on the First Year Gryffindor who was huddled underneath one of the few remaining sinks.

It was utter chaos. The sinks and toilet stalls had been demolished, leaving debris of porcelain and wood floating in the water that was steadily filling the bathroom. As he was observing their surroundings he heard his fellow professors voice.

"Miss Grange." Minerva exclaimed, the worry heavily present in her voice. "How are you feeling? Did the troll harm you in any way? Why on earth did you not go and get some help?"

It took a few moments for the student to respond and when she did her voice was trembling.

"I'm okay Professor." She paused to take a deep breath to compose herself. "I couldn't go for help, I didn't notice the troll before it was too late."

Miss Granger looked away from her Head of House and looked at the destruction that was surrounding her.

"I've read all about trolls, I know how to stop them but… I froze, I know that I should have gotten my wand out to defend myself but I just couldn't force myself to move."

Severus sighed before talking to his fellow professor.

"Perhaps you should escort Miss Granger to the Hospital Wing so that Madam Promfrey can check her over, while I go and inform the other Professors that the troll has been dealt with." Severus suggested.

Minerva gave a sharp nod of her head before helping the student to her feet and guiding her towards the Hospital Wing. Severus eyed the unconscious troll once before spinning on his heel and limping his way out of the bathroom.

 **Guess who's baaaack! I've finished my exams and I'm hoping to have the next chapter out sometime next week, I know this one is pretty short but I'm planning for the next one to be longer.**

 **Thanks to the people who wished me luck on my exams (I'll be honest, I needed all the luck i could get lmao)**

 **Anywaaay I hope you enjoyed, thanks for reading.**


	22. Chapter 22

HP

A few hours had passed since the two Houses had been told that they had to remain inside of the Great Hall. Harry had been talking to Theo but the other boy had fallen asleep at least 30 minutes earlier and Harry had been left to stare at the Hall around him.

His observation of the Hall was soon disturbed by Gemma.

"How are you Harry?" Harry was confused was the look of concern that the Slytherin Prefect was throwing him. He might have thought that it was because of the Troll, however she had asked no other Slytherin how they were feeling.

"I'm fine." Harry answered, before continuing overcome with the need to know they reason for the concern. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"I just know that tonight must be pretty tough for you, just know that I'm here if you want to talk about anything at all." Gemma pat Harry on the shoulder before walking down to the other side of the table to sit next to people from her own year group.

Harry sat in silence, staring aimlessly down at the table in front of him, wondering what had caused the prefects concern for him. The sound of something smashing against the fall caused him to drag his gaze away. It was only then he took notice of the pumpkins decorating the Hall and then a wave of guilt overcame him. How could he forget that this was the anniversary of his parents death, the parents that had died to protect him.

Harry pushed away the guilt that was threatening to overwhelm him, he couldn't afford to be caught vulnerable in front of so many people that he didn't know. He decided to rest his head on top of his arms and pretended to sleep, like his friend beside him.

He stayed in that position even when the Professors returned to the Great Hall after they captured and released the troll and then announced that the Slytherins and Hufflepuffs were finally allowed to retire to their common rooms. He waited until Gemma tapped him and Theo on the shoulder to wake them up.

Harry dragged himself down to the dorms, barely noticing the looks that Gemma and Theo were casting his way. He knew that he should force himself to act normally but it was draining him of all his energy to stop himself from bursting into tears.

As soon as he was inside of his dormitory he crawled into his bed without changing into his pyjamas and pulled the curtain around his bed. The moment the curtain obstructed the others boys view of him Harry let the tears that he had been holding back fall. He shoved his face into his pillow in an attempt to muffle his sobs, even now desperate to hide any sign of true weakness and not fabricated just for show.

The guilt and shame that were threatening to overwhelm him earlier now hit him full force.

' _How could I forget what today was_?' Harry wondered to himself as he began attempting to calm down the sobs he was releasing. _'I know that I've been busy trying to figure out how to find out who had broken into Gringotts, but I still should have remembered.'_

Harry rolled onto his back when he sobs finally calmed, even though there was still tears rolling from his eyes, ignoring the pressure behind his eyes that promised an incoming headache.

Harry could barely hear the sound of the other boys in the dormitory getting ready for bed over the sound of his erratic heartbeat thudding in his ears. He didn't even here the approaching footsteps until a voice quietly called out.

"Harry?"

It was only Theo, but he couldn't stand the thought of his friend seeing him during his moment of weakness. He held his breath, hoping that the other boy just thought that he was sleeping. There was a moment of silence before Theo sighed and then the sound of footsteps moving away from his bed.

Harry spent the night staring at the canopy hanging over his bed, barely noticing as the tears slowed to a stop. He didn't realise how much time had passed until he heard the sounds of the other boys in the dorm waking up and getting ready to head down to breakfast.

Harry was tempted to skip breakfast before he heard Theo call out to him.

"Oi Harry!" There was a moment of silence as though he was waiting for a reply before realising that he wouldn't get one. "If you don't get out of bed I'll drag you out by your birds nest of hair."

Harry sighed before he sat up and pushed the curtains away so that he could place his feet over the edge of the bed. He kept his gaze locked on his feet for a moment before he managed to look at his friend who was standing next to his own bed.

His friend smiled but Harry could see the concern in his eyes. He couldn't stand to see that look in his friends face so he tore his gaze away to look around the room to see that it was empty except from him and Theo.

Noticing his eyes wandering around the room Theo explained that he had waited for the other boys to leave before dragging Harry out of his bed. Harry sends him a thankful smile before he finally dragged himself off of the bed and made his way towards the bathroom.

Harry used to toilet and washed his hands mindlessly, it was only as he was brushing his teeth that he looked at the mirror hanging over the sink. He looked terrible. He looked exhausted, his eyes were bloodshot and swollen and his skin looked paler than usual. He reminded himself of one of the zombies that he had saw through the vents of the door of his cupboard while Dudley had once watched a horror film while his parents were distracted setting up a dinner party for one of Uncle Vernon's bosses.

He finished brushing his teeth and spat out the toothpaste before cupping his hand to gather cold water in them and leaned over the sink before splashing the cold water in his face, hoping to calm down the swelling in his eyes. He sighed in relief when the cold water hit his overheated skin.

He reached for the towels and patted his skin dry before looking back in the mirror. Harry sighed, realising that the skin around his eyes was as good as it was going to get. He leaned against the sink as he stared into the mirror, lost in his own thoughts.

'I'm not going to let this happen again. Everything that I'm going to do is for my parent, I'm going to do everything I can so that they'll never be disappointed with me.' Harry promised to himself before he straightened up and made his way out to meet his friend.

 **Hi, yes I'm alive. I forgot my password for this account and I was too stubborn to reset it lol. Anyway I hope you enjoyed it and thanks for reading. I was just wondering whether there was anyone's POV that you wanted to see? Thought I might as well ask.**

 **Well...**

 **HeavyDirtySoulIsHoldingOnToYou out!**


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